ED attaches properties of two ex-CMs of Goa

The Enforcement Directorate in Goa has attached the properties of former Chief Ministers Digambar Kamat and Churchill Alemao, who are accused in the Louis Berger bribery case, an official said on Thursday.

The properties of Kamat, a sitting Congress legislator, include a 4,047 sq metre plot located in Margao town, a residential building near Panaji and fixed deposits amounting to Rs 41.35 lakh.

"The attached properties worth Rs 75 lakh of Alemao include eight apartments in Varca village as per the registered sale value of the year 2009," an official statement said.

Kamat, who served as Chief Minister from 2007 to 2012, and Alemao, who was then state PWD minister, and other government officials were accused of allegedly accepting a $976,630 bribe in 2010 from officials of US-based Louis Berger consultancy firm.

While Alemao has already been arrested and chargesheeted in a special court, Kamat has managed to evade arrest.

Kamat is also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the Louis Berger scam.

The FIR was first filed after the Louis Berger headquarters, in the US, discovered during an internal audit that bribes had been paid to elected representatives and government officials in Goa for securing contracts.

Subsequently, the ED started a separate probe in the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.

--IANS

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