Goa Lokayukta Justice (retd.) P.K.Misra is examining the documents submitted by activist lawyer Aires Rodrigues pertaining to the alleged disproportionate assets accumulated by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. The documents could also be taken as a suo motu complaint, sources in the Lokayukta Secretariat confirmed to The Hindu on Wednesday.

Mr. Rodrigues on Monday had placed before the Lokayukta a copy of the documents obtained from the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act pertaining to the February 20, 2017 complaint filed by Sudip Tamhankar, a local RTI activist against the then member of the Legislative Assembly, Pramod Sawant. The complaint accuses Mr. Sawant, then chairman of the State-owned Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation, of having acquired disproportionate assets, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.

Sources in the Lokayukta Secretariat said on condition of anonymity that Mr. Rodrigues has not filed a complaint in the appropriate form, but has just forwarded all the documents obtained by Mr. Tamhankar through his RTI application. The Lokayukta is therefore examining the documents to see if it could be taken up as a suo motu case.

Mr. Rodrigues, in his letter, said a mere perusal of the noting sheets processing the complaint against Mr. Sawant demonstrates that the ACB, which has been hounding Opposition politicians on the directions of late chief minister Manohar Parrikar, had shielded Mr. Sawant from an investigation.

Although Parrikar was ailing, on June 16, 2018, he gave his consent to close the disproportionate assets complaint filed by Mr. Tamhankar against Mr. Sawant, without conducting an investigation. In that complaint, Mr. Sawant was accused of buying properties in the name of a partnership firm, M/s Jay Ganesh Developers and Associates, set up by him in 2014 as a front with Ranjit Rohidas Mangaonkar, Rupesh Narayan Thanekar and Rajesh Manohar Shirodkar as partners.

In the complaint, the ACB was given details of 24 sale deeds executed within a span two years by Mr. Sawant’s partnership firm at the office of the sub-registrar in Bicholim in North Goa.

Amongst the properties purchased by the firm was 16,480 sq. m of land in Bordem at Bicholim for ₹1,31,84,000 and another 19,989 sq m of land, also at Bordem, for ₹1,23,34,000.

The complaint said that in his nomination in the 2012 Assembly elections, Mr. Sawant had stated that his total income for 2010-2011 was only ₹4,51,653 and his savings including fixed deposits were a mere ₹55, 139.

The ACB placed the complaint before Parrikar, who directed it first be verified for genuineness through a registered letter to the complainant to ascertain whether he had, in fact, sent the complaint.

Accordingly, the ACB wrote to Mr. Tamhankar on May 15, 2017 requesting him to appear on June 5, 2017 and then by another letter on June 6, 2017, he was asked to appear before the ACB on June 14, 2017. As Mr. Tamhankar failed to appear, Parrikar approved closing of the case.