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Congress’s Dharmesh Saglani, who lost to Pramod Sawant, arrested in alleged extortion case
On Dharmesh Saglani arrest, Goa Congress president Amit Patkar on Monday said the party will stand strongly behind its leaders and workers who are being harassed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
PANAJI: Goa Congress leader Dharmesh Saglani who contested against chief minister Pramod Sawant in the recently concluded Goa assembly elections was arrested by the state police on Monday evening. Saglani was detained by the Goa Police for questioning on Monday and later in the evening, formally placed under arrest, people familiar with the matter said.
Saglani, who contested from the Sanquelim assembly segment, lost to Sawant by a narrow margin of 666 votes.
Police said Saglani was arrested in connection with a first information report (FIR) registered at the Agassaim police station that accuses him of having “abused and threatened” a businessman and raised a demand of ₹50 lakh.” The FIR was filed on January 24 this year, six days after the Congress named him as the party candidate from Sanquelim for the second time in a row. It is being investigated by the state crime branch.
This was the second FIR filed against the Congress leader in January 2022. The first one, which accuses him of cheating in connection with a 2016 land deal, was registered on January 20, 2022.
Dharmesh Saglani did not comment on the police action on Monday but he has in the past claimed that the police complaints against him were motivated by politics.
Goa Congress president Amit Patkar on Monday said the party will stand strongly behind its leaders and workers who are being harassed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Dharmesh Saglani had been fielded by the Congress from the seat in 2017 also but he lost the election with a margin of over 2,000 votes. Saglani was considered to be in a stronger position as compared to 2017 and had also led the bitter fight in the Sanquelim municipal council in north Goa in 2021 that ended with the Congress wresting control of the civic body in the assembly segment’s only “urban” town. In the 2022 state elections, Saglani took an early lead over Pramod Sawant in the first two rounds, but trailed behind the chief minister for the next six rounds.
Ram Navmi commotion
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday asserted that he will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands. The chief minister’s comments come after reports of a commotion during a Ram Navmi procession in the port town of Vasco da Gama that threatened to go out of hand on Sunday evening.
“No one will be allowed to take law into their hands. That’s all,” Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said after a group of people who participated in the procession called on him, alleging that a stone was thrown at the procession when they were passing through an area where a mosque was located.
Two police officers, deputy superintendent of police Salim Shaikh and police inspector Nitin Halarnkar, were transferred.
“Video footage of the area is being assessed. We will get vehicle numbers of those who were responsible for the incident,” Salim Shaikh told reporters hours before he was transferred. Police on Monday registered formal complaints on the basis of statements given by members of both religious groups.
