PANJIM: Former chief minister Digambar Kamat finally showed up at the Crime Branch (CB) office at Ribandar on Wednesday where he was quizzed for nearly two hours in connection with the Louis Berger bribery scam. Interestingly, the sacked JICA project director Anand Wachasundar and Kamat were both in the Crime Branch when they were questioned simultaneously by the investigating officers.
Kamat skipped the second-half proceedings of the Legislative Assembly session to appear before the CB sleuths at about 4.30 pm. The CB sleuths then brought Wachasundar from the Panjim police lock-up to grill him along with Kamat on the bribe issue.
Meanwhile, the CB sleuths continued to interrogate Wachasundar till about 9 pm after which he was escorted back to the lock-up. He refused to comment on the bribery charge against the trio – himself, Kamat and Alemao – stating it is a different issue to be investigated by CB.
“I want government to go ahead with JICA project. It should not suffer or else, we will have a bad name internationally since a foreign company has invested,” was his only comment while in the police jeep.
Meanwhile, as reported by Herald, Anand Wachasundar’s son Sameer too was questioned by Crime Branch (CB) sleuths late Wednesday evening. The businessman is on the radar of CB as his company – Swarnad Constructions – allegedly bagged a number of Public Works Department (PWD) projects during his father’s tenure as PWD principal chief engineer and subsequently when he was appointed as JICA project director. Moreover, there have been allegations that he acted as a middleman between the US firm, the ex-ministers and his father for the JICA water projects.
He was let off within an hour of questioning but sources in the police headquarters confirm that he would be summoned again. Herald was the only newspaper to report in its Wednesday edition that CB will summon Sameer in connection with the high-profile scam.
