PANAJI: The court constituted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Saturday issued summons to former chief ministers Digambar Kamat and
Churchill Alemao, both sitting MLAs, asking them to appear in person on August 28 in the Louis
Berger bribery case.
Special public prosecutor for the enforcement directorate (ED), G D Kirtani, said that Kamat and Alemao have to be present in the
Mapusa court on August 28. He also said that the ED, after completing investigation, filed complaints against the two under Section 4 of the PMLA, 2002.
The ED had attached properties worth Rs 1.95 crore belonging to Kamat and Alemao. Louis Berger International Inc, a New Jersey-based construction management firm, was charged in a US court with paying bribes amounting to a little under $1 million (over Rs 6 crore) for projects in Goa and Guwahati. Beneficiaries of the bribe included a minister whose name hasn’t been revealed by the US justice department.
On August 7, 2015, ED registered an enforcement case information report against ‘ministers’ of the Goa government in 2010, Louis Berger and others, to probe the financial angle. This happened two months after the crime branch initiatied a probe in the case.
During the probe, the ED examined officials of Louis Berger, Nihon Suido consultants, Japan, NGS consultants, Japan, Shah technical
consultancy, India, and other officials and
hawala operators; this examination led to the allegedly laundered assets.
In September 2015, Goa police’s crime branch filed a chargesheet in the bribery case against Alemao and six other on the basis of evidence of corruption to the tune of Rs 1.95 crore.
The 482-page chargesheet, filed before the special court, states that the crime branch established that the main conspirator, Kamat, received a bribe of Rs 1.2 crore, while Alemao received Rs 75 lakh. On October 2016, crime branch filed a 350-page supplementary chargesheet against Kamat. While Alemao was arrested immediately, crime branch failed to get police custody of Kamat, despite accusing him of being the ‘main conspirator’.
Representative image
