ED attaches properties of two former Goa chief ministers in Louis Berger bribery case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 1.95 crore of two former chief ministers of Goa - Digamber Kamat and Churchill Alemao.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached assets worth Rs 1.95 crore of two former chief ministers of Goa - Digamber Kamat and Churchill Alemao - in connection with its money laundering probe into the Louis Berger bribery case.

The Rs 1,031-crore project, funded by JICA, was approved when the Digamber Kamat government was in power for augmenting water supply in south Goa and laying sewerage lines in the state’s major cities. (PTI File Photo)

Kamat, who is from Congress, is a member of the present Goa assembly.

In Kamat’s case, the ED attached a plot of land measuring 4047 square feet situated at Gogal , residential building at Taligao and fixed deposits of Rs 41.35 lakh with a cumulative worth of Rs 1.22 crore. The ED also attached an apartment of Alemao at Fatrade of Varca village with a 2009 registered sale value of Rs 75 lakh in 2009.

Read: Louis Berger case: Ex-Goa CM Kamat among 7 named in charge sheet

The ED had taken over probe into the case following a corruption case registered by the Goa police in July, 2015 where it was alleged that the officials of Louis Berger, a US-based firm, bribed Indian officials to win consultancy for a water augmentation and sewerage project in Goa. The project was funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

“It (the company) agreed to pay a penalty of $17.1 million to resolve charges that it bribed foreign officials,” said the ED.

The matter pertains to the tenure of Digambar Kamat as the Goa chief minister and Alemao was his PWD minister.