The sacked JICA project director also smells a rat about treating the two former employees of the US firm – Sanjay Jindal and Shiv Ram Prasad – as witnesses in the case rather than slapping a criminal case for bribing the then ministers to win JICA water project in the State.
“The persons who gave money (bribe) are witnesses and those who accepted (indicating Kamat and Alemao) are not arrested till date. The two former ministers should have been arrested when they were summoned for questioning but they were allowed to go. Only the one who witnessed (the bribe episode) has been arrested (referring to Wachasunder),” defense counsel Damodar Dhond argued on his client’s bail plea before the Principal Sessions Judge B P Deshpande.
The sacked JICA project director has also accused the CB of threatening to implicate and arrest him in the case. “I was asked to give statement under Section 164 CrPC but I refused after which CB threatened to implicate and arrest me. They (Jindal and Prasad) might have succumbed to the arrest threat…” Dhond stated.
He ridiculed the CB probe questioning whether Alemao was called for ‘an exam viva’ that he was let of after two interrogations.
“Alemao was asked 20 questions. I don’t know whether he was called to answer viva questions for an examination whereas Kamat has reiterated the JICA file never came to him. But I (Wachasunder) was summoned a number of times before the arrest,” Dhond submitted highlighting that Wachasunder ‘does not know about bribe.’
In the half-an-hour long argument, he also pointed out CB’s failure to arrest the hawala agent, who has been identified as one Soni, who the two crucial witnesses, whose statements have been recorded under Section 164 of the code of criminal procedure, had revealed that hawala money to the two ex-ministers were routed through New Jersey, Dubai, Gurgaon and finally Goa. All this, they had claimed took place in the presence of Wachasunder in four different installments at four locations.
The prosecution has opposed his bail seeking extending his remand period to investigate the bribery trail. The court has reserved the bail order for Saturday, when his remand period incidentally ends.
