TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: An accused in the large scale illegal mining scam at Khorgao, Geetesh Naik has filed a petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa that senior politician Jitendra Deshprabhu be probed in the scam.

Naik, a contractor who transported ore illegally extracted from the property owned by Deshprabhu, has alleged harassment by the Crime Branch, which is investigating the case.

In his petition, Naik said that an averment made in the application before the Magistrate alleged a senior cabinet minister’s son being engaged as a mining contractor at Khorgao.

He alleged that Crime Branch’s investigation is biased towards the prime accused Deshprabhu and other officers from several departments who are still not ‘touched’.

“The FIR registered before the crime branch does not reveal my client’s name as a contractor with respect to the mining carried out at Khorgao village. The entire investigation is misdirected and intended to harass my client,” counsel Galileo Teles said in the petition.

Deshprabhu, a Congress ticket aspirant has been accused of mining ore worth Rs 50 crore from his property since 2007.