Louis Berger bribery scam: Ex-Goa CM Kamat denies wrongdoing

Former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Saturday said he was innocent and it was up to the people to judge whether he was being politically harassed or not.

He was reacting to the attachment of his properties by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the Louis Berger bribery case.

"I have not done anything wrong. I was given an intimation by the ED that my properties were attached, only after the news appeared in the media," Kamat, a sitting Congress MLA told IANS in Panaji on Saturday.

The ED earlier this week attached properties worth Rs 1.95 crore belonging to Kamat and another former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao, which were purchased around the time the Louis Berger bribery scam had occurred sometime in 2010.

When asked if he was being made a victim of political harassment, Kamat said: "It is up to the people to decide that."

Former Chief Ministers Churchill Alemao and Digambar Kamat and other government officials have been accused of allegedly accepting a $976,630 bribe in 2010 from officials of US-based Louis Berger consultancy firm to secure implementation rights of a multi-billion dollar water and sewerage project in Goa worth Rs 1,031 crore funded by the Japan International Co-Operation Agency (JICA).

Top officials linked to the JICA project as well as senior Louis Berger employees have been arrested by the Crime Branch along with Alemao.

Kamat has been charged for criminal conspiracy 120-b and 201 (tampering with evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The FIR was first filed after Louis Berger headquarters in the US, discovered during its 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.

ED officials have said that 14 shell companies were formed by Louis Berger officials to transfer the money from the company account to beneficiaries in Goa.

--IANS

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