TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In what appears to be a direction from the highest level of governance in the state, the Special Investigation Team, contesting the anticipatory bail application filed by Pratapsing Rane, leader of opposition and accused in an FIR, has called for his and his son Vishwajit’s arrest and remand in the bribery allegations leveled against them by Naik of Dahej Minerals
SIT in its argument said that the interim bail application filed by the Ranes is premature and that if granted bail would intrude into the investigation. (Also See page 2 column: Is the ‘master’s voice’ dictating the SIT in the investigations against the Ranes?)
Stating that it is a known fact that a criminal conspiracy involving the officials of the mining department, between 2007 and 2012, was because of the blessings of local politicians and businessman and had led to loss of revenue, the SIT said that this was confirmed by the Shah Commission and the committee appointed by the Supreme Court.
Arguing that both the Ranes – Pratapsing and Vishwajit – are influential individuals, SIT’s Uday Naik held that witnesses would not come forward to speak the truth and “hence, unless remanded to police custody, it appears that witnesses would not cooperate with the investigating agency to unearth the truth.”
The SIT informed the court that documents were being collected, bank details were being verified and scrutinised to “unearth the truth.”
The SIT also said that according to the complainant, Congress MLA Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar had also accompanied Director of Dahej Minerals, Girish Pai to meet the senior Rane at his residence at Sanquelim where he had allegedly demanded Rs 10 crore to withdraw his (Rane’s) objections to his mining lease permissions. According to the SIT, the complainant had alleged that Pai had told him that senior Rane had also promised that the mining lease would be granted to his company.
According to the SIT, Pai, one of the directors of the company appears to be in a confused state of mind and was not coming forward with the real facts for fear of reprisal and consequences.
According to the SIT application, as per the statement of the complainant, his partner/director had approached Vishwajit who had demanded and accepted Rs 6 crore for ensuring that the objections would not be raised and the lease would be granted.
