Aires dares Khalap for debate on graft charges

Aires dares Khalap for debate on graft charges
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JAN 14
Reiterating his demand for resignation of Law commission chairman, social activist Aires Rodrigues has dared Ramakant Khalap for an open debate on the allegations levelled by former against the later.
Addressing a press conference, Rodrigues said that Khalap has lost all the moral authority to continue in that chair, which is held in high esteem by the state.
Challenging the former Union Minister for an open debate, Rodrigues has stated that he would quit the legal profession if Khalap could prove that any of the allegations made were false and baseless.
Rodrigues said that every issue he has raised over the years was only after a thorough study and that every allegation against Khalap was backed by a documentary proof.
“Khalap may be the spokesman of the Congress Party but I have never been and will never be anyone’s mouth piece,” Rodrigues commented adding that he had no political ambitions.
Rodrigues said that all State Law Commissions in the country are currently headed by retired Supreme Court or High Court Judges with senior legal luminaries as members.
Rodrigues further stated that the current Goa Law Commission is headed by Khalap, an active politician who is also a spokesman of the Congress party as well as Chairman of the Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank of Goa, and that the expenditure of a whopping Rs 42,03,029 incurred by the Goa Government on the Goa Law Commission from April 2009 to Nov 2010 needs to be probed.
He said that on January 20, 2009, the day  Khalap was appointed as the Chairman of the Goa Law Commission, there were three bank corruption related charge sheets pending against him.
The three charge-sheets were filed against Ramakant Khalap and others under Sections 409, 465, 418, 420 read with sections 109 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to the intention to defraud and causing loss of crores of rupees to the Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank of Goa.
Claiming that setting up of the International arbitration centre was beyond the mandate of the Goa Law Commission, Rodrigues has demanded that all the expenditure incurred on work that was not related to the Law Commission agenda should be recovered by the Goa Government from Khalap.
Regarding the missing file, Rodrigues has stated that it needs to be explained as to how the file only re-surfaced the day the police complaint was filed against Khalap.
Rodrigues has also alleged that the Goa Law Commission Chairman’s youngest son Ashwin Khalap had used his father’s position and political clout to construct on an agricultural tenanted land bearing survey no 158/8 belonging to the Comunidade of Assagao.