The judiciary has spoken and as good citizens we have to accept it. But the decision of the Special Court to grant anticipatory bail to Digambar Kamat in the Louis Berger bribery case poses a tough challenge to the prosecution.
Here it has Churchill Alemao behind bars on exactly the same charges, based on the same preliminary evidence and on the statements of the same witnesses/ the accused. On the other hand the Court has taken the view that punishment should start only when guilt has been proven and that Kamat, as former Chief Minister and now MLA of Margao has roots in society and will not run away from the investigation. The courts observation has posed the following challenges to the Crime Branch, which, one must admit, has performed very well, under the circumstances
a) It needs to continue to defend and hold its own in its investigations against Churchill Alemao in the wake of the Alemao’s fresh appeal in the Court asking for parity of justice after Mr Kamat got bail. So the challenge is as much to keep Churchill Alemao in as it is to get Digambar Kamat in.
b) It needs to seal and corroborate two arguments. Firstly the statement made by witnesses of having paid bribes to the former Chief Minister and secondly Mr Kamat’s role in forcing false RTI responses on the missing JICA file, whose search and recovery is a major issue in the investigation.
c) Most importantly, the Crime Branch needs to take this out of the mini bottleneck where Kamat’s argument is that he has not signed in a single file and therefore not culpable. It needs to prove that Kamat was giving necessary directions to his officers, including the handpicked PWD Chief Engineer A M Wachasundar, which can be seen ultimately favouring Louis Berger and the consortium of consultants.
As this investigation proceeds, its ambit has to be expanded to beyond the Rs 6 odd crores which were allegedly paid. It has to cover the entire JICA project and the manner in monies were allotted and spent for each of the project components. Herald has already proven how salaries to the tune of Rs 25 to 30 lakhs per month were paid to project officials on paper. An investigation into this alone will throw light on the manner in which the Rs 1031 crore JICA project funds were utilised. The bigger game was not on the fees paid to consultants but on the way the money for the mega project was utilised.
The Crime Branch therefore should not lose heart at the acceptance of the Digambar Kamat’s anticipatory bail by the court. Till it is allowed to work freely, it should do what it has to do. Undoubtedly there will be pressures to move the case to the CBI because of other equations. Thus it becomes imperative for the Crime Branch to step on this probe and take it to a stage where moving the case to the Crime Branch cannot be justified.
