Team Herald
PANJIM: The Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act on Saturday granted conditional bail to Geetesh Naik over 20 days after he was arrested on charges of allegedly illegally trading iron ore at Korgao, Pernem belonging to politician Jitendra Deshprabhu.
The court has directed him to report to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) for 30 days, deposit his passport with the court and not leave the country without the court’s prior permission. Naik has also been asked to remain present before the Investigation Officer as and when required and not to interfere with the investigation or the witnesses.
The arrest on July 13 was in connection with a complaint of illegal mining against the former Congress MLA and others.
who, being owners of the property, illegally extracted ore worth of Rs 50 crore allegedly without obtaining permissions/licenses.
Naik’s counsel, Advocate Galileo Teles contended that there was no justifiable reason to arrest his client. He alleged abuse of process of law considering that the FIR was registered in 2012. Teles further submitted that other co-accused, including Deshprabhu and Arvind Lolienkar, were on anticipatory bail which was even confirmed by the Apex Court.
The Special Public Prosecutor opposed the bail on the grounds that there are transactions of huge amounts reflecting in the statement of Naik’s bank account which have not been satisfactorily explained and that custody was required to recover iron ore illegally extracted and transported from Deshprabhu’s property.
The bail comes after the court granted conditional bail to Philip Jacob, another mining trader in the case of iron ore theft.
