PANJIM: Former Louis Berger official Sanjay Jindal was on Monday quizzed by a team of Enforcement Directorate into the FIR related to money laundering in the JICA watergate scam.
Jindal was the second witness after Shiv Ram Prasad Malladi, another ex-LB official, whose statement has been recorded before judicial magistrate under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
“He was quizzed for a couple of hours wherein he was asked to divulge about the ex-ministers’ receiving kickbacks from the company, contacts with other LB officials, then ministers, JICA officials in Goa and others connected with the case, etc,” an official said, adding he is expected to be summoned again as alleged hawala operator Raichand Soni is yet to be questioned.
Soni, who was recently bailed out by the special court had confessed to delivering Rs 1.75 lakh to Jindal on request from his friend and witness Prasanna Shah at his Midland shop.
“There is no evidence that I paid the money to ex-ministers. My friend Shah had called me to pay the amount to Jindal, which I delivered through my employee Mukesh Bharati (also witness in the case). I withdrew the huge amount from my bank account. I can afford to since I am financially sound with vast real estate business,” he had submitted to Special Court during his bail arguments. Out on bail, Soni recently moved the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking permission to travel to Dubai. The bench has reserved the order after a full-fledged argument last week.
One of the two LB officials had disclosed that he witnessed the four transactions wherein Rs 50-60 lakh on one occasion and Rs 15 lakhs on another occasion was delivered to ex-PWD minister Churchill Alemao, and Rs 50-60 lakhs was paid to ex-chief minister Digambar Kamat on two occasions in 2010-11.
