PANJIM: Crime Branch (CB) sleuths have begun the process to obtain a non-bailable warrant of arrest against former Louis Berger (LB) official James McClung after his failure to respond to summons issued last month.
McClung was given 15 days from the date of issuing summons to depose before the CB in connection the LB bribery case involving former chief minister Digambar Kamat, former PWD minister Churchill Alemao, government officials and former officials of the US-based firm among others.
“We have not received any reply from him or communication from his representative on the summons. CB has therefore decided to proceed with the procedure to issue a non bailable warrant of arrest against him,” an officer told Herald.
The summons were sent to the LB offices in New Jersey-US, Gurgaon and Delhi in India seeking his presence in Goa. McClung had confessed to a New Jersey court of paying bribes to a politician and Goa officials to win the JICA project in 2010.
Another former LB official Richard Hirsch and McClung had pleaded guilty to conspiracy and charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. McClung had previously served as the Senior Vice President responsible for the company’s operations in India and subsequent to Hirsch, in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, last weekend the Union ministry of Home Affairs granted the State government permission to move the local court to issue a letter rogatory to a court in New Jersey to obtain McClung’s deposition copy.
