PANJIM: Former chief minister Digambar Kamat received a breather till next Wednesday with the hearing on his anticipatory bail plea adjourned till August 12.
When the matter came up for arguments before the packed District and Sessions Court on Friday, special public prosecutor G Kirtani requested time to submit a reply to the application filed on August 5.
“It (prosecution’s submission) is en route to the court (from Crime Branch (CB) office, Ribandar)… We will submit by (Friday) evening,” he told Principal Sessions Judge B P Deshpande after which the defence sought a copy of the reply. The court then adjourned the matter for hearing on August 12 afternoon.
About 50 of Kamat’s supporters from his Margao constituency attended the hearing while another 100 to 150 gathered around the court complex. After the hearing, many were heard saying that Kamat had been granted bail only to be corrected later that it was an ‘interim relief’ as no final order has been pronounced.
In another development, former country head of Louis Berger Satyam Mohanty, represented by noted criminal lawyer Majid Memon applied for regular bail and the case will be heard on Monday. He too was produced before Deshpande as his three-day police custody ended on Friday. The court remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody.
Former PWD minister and alleged accused Churchill Alemao’s bail plea will also be heard on Monday afternoon.
CB is investigating a bribery case, where Louis Berger has admitted in a New Jersey court of having paid bribes to Indian officials and a minister to win a consultancy for a water augmentation project funded by JICA in 2010.
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Wachasundar’s statement recorded before JMFC
PANJIM: Former JICA project director Anand Wachasundar’s statement was recorded before a judicial magistrate on Friday.
The deposition was however, left incomplete and he will be produced before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) again on Monday.
Wachasundar, the first person to be arrested in the JICA bribery case, is presently in judicial lock-up after an eight-day long interrogation by Crime Branch sleuths.
The former JICA project director had spilled the beans on the alleged role played by Alemao and Kamat in the bribery case. Other witnesses too accused the two politicians of accepting bribes.
