Panaji: The Enforcement Directorate today quizzed former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat here in connection with the Louis Berger bribery scam. “He was questioned about the noting on the file by him in his capacity as a Chief Minister of the state. Several questions related to the inquiry were asked from him,” a senior ED official said on condition of anonymity.
The veteran Congress leader arrived at ED office this morning and was interrogated till evening. In August 2015, when Goa police was investigating the claims of US-based company that they had paid heavy bribes to an Indian minister, the ED had lodged FIR under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The company had won consultancy for the project of augmentation of sewerage and water supply infrastructure in the state implemented under funding by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) when Kamat was heading the Congress government in Goa.
Former state Public Works Department minister Churchill Alemao, JICA project director Anand Wachasunder and Louis Berger’s Vice President Satyakam Mohanty were arrested in the case, whereun state ministers allegedly received bribes to the tune of USD 976,000 to grant contracts for the JICA-funded project in Goa.
Kamat could not be arrested earlier as he was granted anticipatory bail by a local court which was upheld by the Goa bench of Bombay High Court.
