PANJIM: Churchill Alemao and former chief minister Digambar Kamat were summoned to appear before Crime Branch (CB) sleuths on Tuesday. However, Kamat skipped summons claiming he didn’t receive it; Alemao remained present at the CB office, Ribandar at 11:24am.
Alemao received hand-delivered summons to appear for questioning at 11am on Tuesday, Kamat was issued summons through Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Rajendra Arlekar on Tuesday morning to appear the very same evening at 4pm.
A CB inspector personally handed over the summons to Kamat in the Goa Legislative Assembly, after a nod from Speaker Rajendra Arlekar. The summons had clearly mentioned to appear at CB office, Ribandar at 4pm.
“He enjoys certain privileges as an MLA during the Assembly session, which is why we have to route it through the Speaker. We have the acknowledgement confirming he received summons,” a CB officer told Herald.
Mr Kamat surprisingly denied receiving any summons stating he has been asked to appear for questioning on Wednesday and cooperate with the investigation.
Meanwhile, clad in his usual attire – black safari suit, Alemao reached CB office in his private vehicle GA-08-AA-4499 at 11:24am. “I have been called (to CB) so many times before on PWD, road and other issues. Let them (CB) conduct investigation. I am here to cooperate,” he told the waiting journalists before going for interrogation.
The questioning began only after 12 noon as the CB office suffered a power failure. He was quizzed till about 2:05pm then there was a break for lunch and he re-appeared for 40 minutes from 3:30 pm to 4:20pm.
While he earlier had friendly chats with the waiting journalists asking them to take his comment on the questioning process, Alemao changed his tone on emerging out of the interrogation room later in the evening. “Who are you? Why should I tell you? You people are enjoying because Churchill has been summoned,” he reacted angrily to a media query.
CB SP Kartik Kashyap refused to comment on the ongoing investigation however, Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg did not rule out the possibility of summoning Alemao again. He also confirmed delivering summons to Kamat after getting the Speaker’s permission.
The two former ministers are not new to police summons as they have earlier appeared before CB sleuths on PWD scam and illegal-mining investigation, respectively.
