Former Goa CM, bureaucrats quizzed in mining scam

Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat and senior retired bureaucrats Saturday appeared before a special investigation team, probing the Rs.35,000 crore illegal mining scam.

Kamat, now a Congress legislator, former director mines and geology Arvind Lolienkar and former law secretary V.P. Shetye arrived at the Crime Branch office, responding to summons issued to them as part of the probe into the scam exposed by the Justice M.B. Shah Commission.

The trio, who are being questioned by the SIT headed by Deputy Inspector General K.K. Vyas, have been indicted in the Shah report for facilitating the mining scam, in which bureaucrats, politicians as well as nearly all mining companies operating in Goa have been named.

Police sources said that Kamat was being questioned about numerous questionable deemed permissions granted to erring mining companies in collusion with the state mines directorate and the law ministry.