Margao Municipal chairperson Arthur fears arrest, files anticipatory
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 17 August 2015 17:22 IST
Fearing arrest, Margao municipal chairperson Arthur D’Silva has now filed anticipatory bail application before the special court dealing with corruption cases.
He has been granted interim relief till tomorrow afternoon, when his bail plea would be heard.
Goa police had summoned him today noon to appear before the crime branch for interrogation, in connection with the Louis Berger bribery case.
D’Silva is the first politician, implicated in the Berger bribery case, who is in power. He heads the Margao Municipal Council.
He has been charged of conspiring with former chief minister Digambar Kamat in getting false information under Right to Information Act, from the JICA-funded office.
The JICA office had earlier furnished information to Kamat that the file with notings pertaining to the JICA-funded project of water supply and sewerage was taken by the crime branch along with other files, when they had searched the office.
D’Silva had personally gone to JICA-funded office with Kamat’s RTI letter and the authority letter given to him by the former CM, to collect the reply, on 10th August.
Next day, he had personally collected the reply from the office, which stated that the crucial file, which the crime branch claimed to have been missing, was with the crime branch.
The police wanted to arrest Kamat, alleging that the former CM had either hidden or destroyed the ‘missing’ file.
Kamat had pleaded innocent, showing the RTI reply, and had urged the court that he be granted anticipatory bail.
The crime branch however next day had recorded statement of Public Information Officer of JICA-funded office, where he confessed that he gave a reply in haste without verifying the facts, since the Margao municipal chairperson was pressuring him to give the reply immediately.
After summoning D’Silva twice on 12th and 13th August consecutively, the crime branch has now charged him under section 201 IPC, for “giving false information to screen offender.”
What it means is that Kamat, conspiring with D’Silva, sought the false information from the JICA-funded office in order to save him from the serious charge of the corruption case.
He thus today filed anticipatory bail application, sought interim relief and then reported to the crime branch for interrogation.
Kamat also reported at the crime branch, as was summoned, at 4 pm today.
