So what lies ahead for the ‘Principal Conspirator’ in the Louis Berger bribery scam. He happens to be Digambar Kamat, who as principal conspirator, is still out of custody, while all other side players are either in prison or have been there. The Crime Branch is understandably working with its hands tied because of the court restrictions on arresting Kamat till the state’s appeal in the High Court against the grant of his anticipatory bail by the lower court, is disposed off.
Interactions with the crime branch, gives this newspaper reason to believe its seriousness in getting Kamat’s custody. Yet all eyes will be on them as they prepare to re-argue the case after Judge K L Wadane recused from hearing CB’s plea challenging Kamat’s anticipatory bail. The bail hearing, going on for over 40 days now, will be heard by Judge C V Bhadang all over again. The arguments put forth by the Crime Branch and the manner in which this is argued in Court will be very closely watched. Firstly the Crime Branch will have to overcome and dispel the technical reason given by the Special Court for granting Kamat anticipatory bail- that the reasons for arrest were not recorded.
If it does manage to take the former chief minister into custody, it should be able to identify who the last link in the bribery chain was, and trace their steps backward on where this trail originated. It’s akin to looking for the source of a river, which originated deep in the crevice of insurmountable mountains. The big question is, what is the actual source of the funds which were paid ostensibly to secure the Rs 1031 crore JICA-funded water and sewerage project contract. It is clear that such a huge back channel, operation based on the time trusted hawala principal wasn’t put into motion just to allegedly pay Rs 75 lakhs to former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao and Rs 1.95 crore to Digambar Kamat. In the world of underworld finance, these amounts are small change. Even gamblers in Goan casinos, (from where at least one instalment of the bribe money was allegedly picked up from) move with this amount of cash for the nightly gambling. So what could have been at stake is not the granting of the consultancy but the long term deals that the “key conspirator” could have been a part of, along with the rogue officer of Louis Berger International James McClung.
The investigations need to move beyond Louis Berger and focus on the ring of players including the former Vice President of Louis Berger international, looking at India affairs, James McClung.
Meanwhile, at all points of time though, the political will of the Parsekar government and its intention and ability to put Digambar Kamat under extreme pressure, will determine the investigation, if not directly, but surely indirectly.
For the record Manohar Parrikar has said the right things. And for the record they are, “I guarantee that I will offer whatever help is needed from the Centre, right from the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax and CBI to expose them”, (Digambar Kamat and Churchill Alemao) he said, in the first week of August
Going further, the now Defence Minister told party workers in Panjim in August this year: “Put him (Digambar) in a corner and ensure that he is made to suffocate over the scam.”.
As the monsoon ceases, giving way to the season of merriment, it is Churchill Alemao who suffocates in jail, while Digambar Kamat has been doing his temple darshan and finalising his panel of candidates in the upcoming Margao civic polls. Thus, yet another Parrikar promise seems to have been broken.
