SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024
Your friendly MLA, who will be knocking on your door for your vote to become a law maker, may have himself or herself bent the law at some point of time or the other. As candidates begin to file their nominations, there are a sizeable number who face charges of extortion, abetment to suicide, cheating, criminal conspiracy, threat, destruction of offence and they are all seeking to enter or in some cases re-enter the House.
In a State where such cases do not matter to the aspirants, there has been a consistent increase in the proportion of candidates with criminal cases. Rather, some have got cases added after the last Assembly election.
Former Independent MLA from Priol, Govind Gaude – now a BJP candidate – was not just the first candidate to file his nomination for the February 14 polls, but also leads the other candidates with criminal history.
As the State waits for personal details of the contesting candidates to be placed in public domain, Herald has done some background checking, whilst also taking assistance of the data published in government records of the 2017 Assembly elections.
Gaude has three criminal cases against him. He was accused of inciting a mob and also charged with attempt to murder during an agitation by the tribal community in 2011. Former minister Ramesh Tawadkar, who has been given a ticket from Canacona, is also an accused in the same case.
While he faces two other cases too, the wannabe legislators continue to have a brush with the law. Take for instance, incumbent Panjim MLA Atanasio Monserrate who is facing trial in a rape case involving a minor girl, who was allegedly procured from a lady pimp.
The additional district and sessions court framed charges against Monserrate in 2019. The case dates back to 2016 when the victim had stated that her mother and a lady by name Rosy sold her to Babush who allegedly drugged and raped her in his house.
Babush along with his wife Jennifer, a minister in the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet, are also facing trial in another gross offence of violence in the State capital that occurred in 2008. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), that investigated and charge sheeted the case, has accused the couple politician of hatching a criminal conspiracy, leading a violent armed mob to the Panjim Police Station and attacking the personnel. They are among 37 accused facing the trial that commences from February 3.
The serious offences against them have not deterred the party from awarding the Monserrate couple tickets from Panjim and Taleigao.
Mickky Pacheco, then Goa Vikas Party MLA who extended his support to the BJP in 2012, is the king of offences. With no tie-up with any political party, the controversial politician intends to contest Independent from his strong hold Nuvem constituency.
Until his last nomination papers, he had around 10 criminal cases including bigamy, abetment to suicide, extortion and assault against him. In 2010, he was investigated by the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security for alleged human trafficking and money laundering.
Known for his flashy lifestyle, which includes driving a luxury SUV Hummer or a Harley Davidson motorcycle to work, including to the State Legislative Assembly, Pacheco ran into several controversies in the past. His alleged involvement in the abetment to suicide of his woman friend took away his cabinet status from the then Congress-led government over a decade ago. He was arrested and bailed out weeks later.
Notwithstanding serious offences against them, the political aspirants still rise high.
Michael Lobo, a two-time MLA from Calangute, has two cases against him, one of which was charge sheeted while he was in the BJP. He recently ditched the party to join the Congress for a reason that his wife, a Sarpanch, was not being accommodated in the BJP’s candidate list. The couple is now candidates from Calangute and Siolim on Congress tickets.
Lobo, in mid 2016, was charge sheeted in a seven-year-old case of forgery of coastal regulation zone (CRZ) no objection certificate (NOC) case.
The chargesheet will be filed before the Mapusa Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) under various sections of Indian Penal Code pertaining to a complaint filed in 2009 that a hotel, where Lobo is a 25 per cent business partner, was built within 500 mtrs of the coastline. The probe had also revealed that there was no conversion sanad issued by the district collectorate. With the filing of the chargesheet, Lobo faced another FIR for forgery of the NOC under the letterhead Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority. Government officials who abetted the crime in 2006 also faced charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
There are also candidates who are facing charges for various offences such as the JICA scam involving Congress’s Digambar Kamat and TMC’s Churchill Alemao. The case that exposed major scam way back in 2015 had seen Alemao’s arrest while Kamat succeeded in getting anticipatory bail.
A former Goa Forward Party leader Vinod Paliencar is also facing charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Special Court had framed charges against him for the offence reported in 2014.
BJP candidate from Thivim Nilkanth Halarnkar faces two offences reported in 2011 and 2016 for cheating, criminal conspiracy and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Tawadkar, who was once rejected the ticket by the BJP only to be considered again this election, was in 2020, sentenced to jail till the rising of the court by the JMFC Canacona in an assault case filed against him in 2017. He was also directed to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 to one Puno Velip who had accused the former minister of threatening to kill him when he and his friend was moving to Chaudi in a two wheeler.
In 2021, the additional sessions court exonerated him for inconsistencies in evidence of the complainant and witness.
In a development just before the polls, the State was shocked over a minister’s alleged involvement in a rape case. Congress candidate Sankalp Amonkar shot to popularity after he claimed to have exposed his rival Milind Naik in a sex scandal. The allegations forced Naik to give up his ministry but the matter boomeranged on Amonkar.
While the Goa Police refused to register an FIR against Naik following denial of the offence by the victim woman, Amonkar was slapped with an FIR for allegedly threatening and blackmailing her.
In another development ahead of the polls, a FIR for wrongful restraint and voluntarily causing hurt to a BJP office bearer, registered against ex-Independent MLA and current BJP candidate from Porvorim Rohan Khaunte was quashed by the High Court of Bombay at Goa. The matter turned murkier when the BJP spokesperson approached the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly seeking an inquiry followed by FIR. The matter was then taken to the court which was then quashed.
In the 2007 Assembly elections for Goa, 18 per cent candidates had declared criminal cases against themselves. In the report released by the election watchdog just recently, 22.5 per cent MLAs are charged with serious criminal offences. In the previous 2012 assembly election, 12 per cent had criminal charges against them while two per cent had serious offences. In 2007, 23 per cent of those elected to the legislative assembly had offences against them while no legislator had serious offences.
