Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Monday urged the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing of the disqualification petition against 10 former Congress MLAs who defected and joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in July 2019.
Seeking a hearing of the case on March 12, Chodankar’s counsel Sahil Tagotra in a letter to Supreme Court of India Registrar dated March 8, said that since the case in pending for more than 18 months, any additional delay in listing of the matter will irreversibly prejudice the petitioner’s case.
Tagotra stated that the matter was earlier mentioned on March 3, 2021 when the tentative date was being reflected as March 8, 2021. A request was made that the matter be not deleted. However, despite specific directions of the court to list the matter in the first week of March and a mentioning application having been duly filed, the matter was deleted from March 8, 2021, and not listed. As of now, no tentative date is being reflected on case status, he said
Meanwhile, Sushant Ray of Benaulim has filed an
intervention application before the Supreme Court seeking to provide material inputs to facilitate the proceedings.
In his application, Ray has stated that he had filed a complaint against one of the respondents and current Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavalekar wherein the Goa Lokayukta had directed investigation against him in alleged disproportionate assets, money laundering and matka gambling activity.
Stating that Kavalekar joined BJP due to the pressure of the cases filed by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and Crime Branch against him, Ray has prayed that the Court seek inputs from CB and Crime Branch to ascertain if the cases filed by them were done under political pressure as alleged.
