TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a brisk development, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Goa Police Friday swung into action and interrogated South Goa strongman Churchill Alemao for almost one-and-a-half hour on Friday evening over allegations surrounding Public Works Department, officials said.
“We questioned him for about one-and-a-half hour,” Superintendent of Police ACB, Bosco George told media, confirming that it was regarding the controversial PWD scams that the former PWD minister had been summoned and questioned.
Earlier, PT Parker, Executive Engineer of Division XXV who was in the eye of the scam and suspended for the Short Tender Scam, has in his letter to the government, appealed for clemency and reinstatement on grounds that all tenders were approved by then PWD minister Churchill Alemao.
Based on Parker’s letter, the Anti Corruption Bureau prepared a detailed questionnaire for Churchill and summoned him for questioning. Although details of the questionnaire were not immediately available, sources disclosed that Churchill denied all allegations made by Parker, including notings made by him on tender files.
Director of Vigilance Sunil Masoorkar had ordered suspension of Parkar in April 2012, after an initial inquiry revealed his involvement in fudging road contract tenders worth crores of rupees.
Parkar had allegedly bifurcated 48 works into 268 tenders so as to avoid the need for getting the works sanctioned from higher authorities. The suspended official had authority to sanction work of up to Rs five lakh. The Department officials stated that the engineer bypassed the mandatory requirement of advertising the works in local newspapers as well.
Interestingly, Parker admitted that he ‘manipulated’ the contracts with the recommendation and written approval of Churchill Alemao, turning the heat on the minister.
Earlier, the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had alleged that there were discrepancies in 18 Divisions of the PWD and 25 cases pertaining to these discrepancies were handed over to the Vigilance Department for investigation.
Another allegation made was that 214 orders amounting to some Rs 60 crore were shockingly issued within 24 hours by PWD’s Division VI. Churchill, who was the PWD minister in the erstwhile Digambar Kamat-led Congress government has been accused of perpetrating a scam in the PWD.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had announced an inquiry into corruption in PWD projects of over Rs 30 crore especially in Navelim. Some four other engineers too are under the scanner for corruption relating to these works.
Congressman, Sunil Kawthankar had also accused Churchill of allegedly cheating, fraud, and misappropriation of funds in the PWD, to the tune of Rs 300 crore and filed a case against the former minister. He had alleged that around 258 tenders were awarded fraudulently in PWD’s works division XXIV alone, each tender amounting to Rs 5 lakh or more.
Recently, an FIR was also filed by the Crime Branch in a case involving the Goa State Cooperative Bank loan waiver scheme, where Churchill was one among the beneficiaries who are accused of cheating the State to the tune of Rs 12.26 crore between 2008 and 2011.
Churchill files for anticipatory bail
MARGAO: Asserting that the present government is hostile towards him, former PWD minister, Churchill Alemao on Friday moved the South Goa Sessions Court for anticipatory bail fearing arrest by the Colva police in the Varca tarred road digging case.
Alemao has moved the court for anticipatory bail fearing arrest and detention after the Colva police summoned him to the police station on February 16.
In his bail application filed through his lawyer, Adv A Clovis Da Costa, Alemao submitted there is no need for any custodial interrogation.
The Colva police had last month registered an offense of unlawful Assembly and under Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Properties Act, 1984 against him and his family members for causing damage to public property by digging the tarred road leading to the house of his neighbour and complainant, Sandra Mascarenhas.
Submitting that the complaint was filed at the behest of his political opponents, Alemao stated in his bail application that the road which is alleged to have been dug is not a road, but part of a property which has been tarred by his nephews and which has been purchased by his nephews in 2011.
He further said his nephews have only done some work in the property as they want to develop a garden in front of the ancestral house of the Alemaos. He reiterated in the bail application that a 1.5 meter wide foot access has not been interfered with by him or any of his family members and is available to the complainant.
Saying that custodial interrogation is not at all required in the case, Alemao submitted to the court that he is ready to comply with any conditions imposed by the court.
The bail application would come up for hearing in the court on Monday, sources said.
