PANJIM: The Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Friday turned down the Crime Branch (CB) plea that sought to close the Serula Comunidade cheating and land grab case against Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar.
Adjourning the matter to January 12, 2017 for inquiry, Principal Sessions Judge B P Deshpande observed that the Court was not satisfied with the investigation conducted by the CB sleuths.
Complainant Advocate Aires Rodrigues had opposed CB’s move to close the case alleging it was an attempt to shield Parulekar. He submitted that CB had derailed and vitiated the investigation by falsely and malafiedly portraying to the court that the minister was a poor victim who was misled by the comunidade officials to allegedly grab the land.
In January 2014, Mapusa JMFC had directed the Porvorim Police to register an FIR against Parulekar, Peter Martins, then attorney of Serula Comunidade and Irene Sequeira, then Administrator of Comunidades of Bardez for offences under sections 119 (public servant concealing design to commit offense which is his duty to prevent), 120 (concealing design), 420 (cheating) read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The investigation of the case was later transferred to the CB.
Rodrigues in his complaint had drawn the court’s attention that the 599 sq mtr of prime land on Chogm Road at Porvorim was given to Parulekar without any auction and without following the procedure contemplated under the Code of Comunidade and that the intention was to fraudulently facilitate doling out prime comunidade land to Parulekar.
