Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to former chief minister Digambar Kamat on crime branch’s (CB) application for cancellation of anticipatory bail in the Louis Berger bribery scandal. With this, the final arguments is slated on December 8.
When the matter came up before the division bench of Justices Jasti Chelameswar and Abhay Manhar Sapre, the State represented by Additional Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and Advocate V Madhukar submitted that Kamat has not been cooperating with the investigation.
They also pointed out that High Court of Bombay at Goa and Special Court failed to consider the merits of the case while granting Kamat anticipatory bail.
Sources said the Judge was quick to comment, “Which CM (chief minister) cooperates with the investigation.’
The State also brought to the notice of the court that his custodial interrogation was necessary to recover the notings from the missing JICA files as well as the bribe amount, that the sitting MLA received as kickbacks from the Louis Berger officials. The confessional statement of former LB executive James McClung before the New Jersey District Court about bribing Goa officials and politician to win the JICA project in 2010 was amongst other submissions highlighted during the brief argument.
Senior counsel Surendra Desai, who argued on behalf of Kamat before the two courts in the State will also appear in the Supreme Court.
