Team Herald
PANJIM: The Economic Offences Cell (EOC) of Goa Police has registered a fresh case against a former Congress minister, two Goa Cricket Association (GCA) officials and one ex-official on charges of misappropriating Rs 1 crore.
The First Information Report (FIR) registered against the then GCA President and ex-minister Dayanand Narvekar, GCA President Chetan Desai, Secretary Vinod Phadke and former treasurer Akbar Mulla accuses them of hatching a criminal conspiracy and depositing Rs 1 crore in a fake bank account in 2006-07. The funds of TV subsidy were sent by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to GCA.
“The accused opened a fraudulent bank account of GCA in Shiroda Urban Cooperative Credit Society Ltd IDC, Kundaim and thereafter deposited the cheque of Rs 1 crore. The cheque was sent to ICICI, Ponda branch for deposit and clearance and further in a short period the accused siphoned of the money for their personal gain,” the FIR states. The case comes two days after Phadke joined the MGP.
Interestingly, another case booked against Desai, Phadke and Mulla earlier this year saw the Police Department struggling to collect evidence. As per the FIR, the trio had opened a fake and forged bank account in Development Credit Bank and illegally withdrawn Rs 2.87 crore by misappropriating the cricketing body’s funds.
However, a forensic report revealed that the specimen signatures do not match those on the cheque, account opening form and photo identity allegedly signed by the trio with the DCB officials. However, the specimen signature of Desai and Phadke match the signatures on the cheque for Rs 26 lakh issued from the Federal Bank on the pretext of making payment to a sports goods company called ‘Hako Enterprise’.
