Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa police have ruled out any immediate arrests in the JICA water development bribery case.
“Not presently. Depends on where evidence leads. At present I don’t think there will be many more arrests,” DGP T N Mohan said. Former JICA project director A Wachasundar is presently in custody, while former chief minister Digambar Kamat and former minister Churchill Alemao have been questioned in the case.
Meanwhile, Goa police is still awaiting a reply to a letter rogatory faxed to the US government seeking details of the bribery charge where two former Louis Berger officials were recently prosecuted by the US court for the offence.
“The Crime Branch (CB) had sent letter rogatory soon after registering an FIR in the bribery scam against ‘some ex-minister’ and Louis Berger. But the US government is yet to send us the details of the deposition of the two former executives who pleaded guilty to the bribery charge before its court,” an official said.
The two employees had told the court that USD 976,630 was paid as a bribe to a minister to secure water developmental projects in Goa.
The US firm, besides two Japanese firms and an Indian partner, was part of the consortium for the project.
