Bribery scam: Digambar Kamat skips Crime Branch appearance ahead of bail hearing

PANAJI: Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat today failed to appear before the Goa Crime Branch for questioning in connection with the Louis Berger bribery case.

Fearing arrest in the case, the 61-year-old Congress leader, who has been questioned by the investigators twice, in connection with alleged bribery in awarding of a consultancy contract to the US firm for a major water development project in Goa, had filed an anticipatory bail which will be heard today.

In a letter sent to Crime Branch through his lawyer Surendra Desai, Kamat said, "I am busy consulting my lawyers in connection with the anticipatory bail. So I will not be able to present (myself) before the investigating officer".

Kamat was summoned by the Crime Branch at noon at their Ribander office near here in connection with the case.

Yesterday, head for the JICA-aided project in Goa, Anand Wachasunder had claimed before a court that he was a witness to the bribe money given to Kamat and then State Public Works department minister Churchill Alemao.

Wachasunder has given graphic details before a magistrate here on how the bribe was paid, where it was paid and how much money was paid to these two ministers.

The Crime Branch, which has opposed his bail, had earlier told the court that Kamat allegedly accepted bribe at his official residence here, which was also the venue of several heated discussions and arguments with bureaucrats to clear the deal for the US firm.

In its submission in the court, the Crime Branch made this claim based on the confessional statement made by a former employee of the New Jersey-based management consultancy firm which had won the contract when Kamat was heading the Congress-led ministry in the state from 2007-2012.

"It is submitted that one more ex-employee of Louis Berger International Inc, in his confessional statement under section 164 CrPC before the court, corroborated the statement of his colleague that he had delivered on two occasions Rs 50-60 lakhs to then Kamat at his official residence at Altinho (Panaji) and his private residence at Margao in 2010-11," it had said during submissions made while seeking extension of police custody of Alemao.