Team Herald
PANJIM: Former Public Works Department (PWD) minister Churchill Alemao has contested Crime Branch’s (CB) submission calling him a habitual offender and smuggler, in an application filed before the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
“Not all the cases have gone to courts while in some other cases he is discharged. Some cases do not exist. The court has been misled,” defence counsel Ashok Mundargi told the single judge bench of Justice K L Wadhane hearing Alemao’s bail petition. The arguments will continue next Wednesday following which the order will be pronounced.
The prosecution, contesting the bail plea, had stated that the former minister has a criminal background as he was involved in gold smuggling in the 1990s, dividing the community over the Konkani-Marathi language issue, and two separate scams in PWD. The submission also highlights that as MP in 2005 he was caught in a sting operation by a national news channel seeking ‘commission’ to approve a Konkani mobile library and was once detained under the National Security Act.
“He was never detained under NSA,” the counsel argued, rubbishing CB’s submission that his bail would affect the ongoing investigation in the Louis Berger bribery scam.
Mundargi argued that if Alemao had criminal antecedents, then why didn’t his intimidatory tactics come in way of CB recording statements of witnesses before the judicial magistrate under section 164 CrPC before his arrest.
He further said that during Alemao’s judicial custody, CB did not question him even once. “Materials/evidence has to be considered if CB requires his continued custody,” he said adding, “If CB says the (missing) file is destroyed, then it is destroyed. It cannot be recovered now. Then why is his custody required now?”
The prosecution led by S R Rivonkar stated that confessional statement of ex-JICA project director Anand Wachasundar clearly implicated Alemao in the case. “He (Wachasundar) said that Ram Prasad (ex-Louis Berger official) was supposed to deliver one installment of Rs 10 lakh bribe but he delivered Rs 40,000 less. Alemao was furious over this,” he said.
The prosecution also explained that his role in the case is different from that of former chief minister Digambar Kamat, who is also wanted for custodial interrogation.
