Team Herald
PANJIM: When Digambar Kamat heaved a sigh of relief after getting anticipatory bail in the Louis Berger bribery case, he had hardly anticipated this the morning after. In a day-long joint operation, which began at the crack of dawn, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the State police’s Crime Branch (CB) seized several property documents and foreign currency from the house and offices of the former chief minister Digambar Kamat, his brothers-in-law Nilesh and Gourish (Pinky) Lawande and Narhar Thakur, the father in law of Kamat’s son.
The raids were in connection with the Louis Berger bribery case presently being investigated by the CB. ED has also filed a case in this connection based on the CB FIR. It was clear though Gourish (Pinky) Lawande was their primary target.
According to sources, bags taken from Gourish Lawande’s residence contained property documents. ED also conducted a panchanama and the copy of which was given to Gourish on Thursday as he was leaving the office.
At Hotel La Capitol, ED and CB officials searched two separate offices and three shops belonging to Gourish which are connected with the hotel.
The raids on five places at hotel La Capitol came as a surprise to Gourish as ED and CB officials seized two bags of the documents and left the premises, but returned within 15 minutes and searched other offices and three shops with another search warrant issued by ED.
Enforcement officers refused to divulge any information about the raids and searches. However, CB SP Karthik Kashyap said that the raids and searches are linked with the Louis Berger bribery case investigations.
Crime Branch officials said documents seized are of properties worth more than Rs 100 crore and there were 150 financial documents of different properties.
The foreign currency seized from Gourish’s house at Campal was worth above Rs five lakh. ED officials said that a case under FEMA will be registered against Gourish for storing such a large amount of foreign currency much beyond the permissible limit in India.
The seized documents were being verified at the ED office at Patto till late evening. Sources said summons will be issued to the concerned people once the documents have been scrutinized.
Kashyap said, “As it was a joint operation by ED and CB, copies of whatever documents we require for our investigation will be sourced. We already have taken some copies of the documents, the rest will be sourced soon.”
Kashyap has not ruled out the possibility of more raids and searches in this case. “Our objective is to establish the crime,” he said.
