PANAJI: Even after investigating the case relating to the controversial allotment of land for special economic zones (SEZ) for more than a decade, the anti-corruption branch (ACB) of the directorate of vigilance has still been unable to complete the investigation.
In 2012, ACB registered a first information report (FIR) based on a complaint filed by Mandar Shirodkar, deputy general manager (law), Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC), on “arbitrary and illegal allotment of land” to seven parties for SEZ.
Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the case is still “under investigation”.
The complaint states that the allotment was done by hatching a criminal conspiracy and involved manipulation of documents, cheating govt and causing loss to the exchequer in connivance with some “GIDC officials and other unknown private/public servants”.
ACB in the FIR mentioned the names of seven companies—Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, Peninsular Pharma Research Centre Pvt Ltd, K Raheja Corporation Pvt Ltd, Paradigm Logistic and Distribution Pvt Ltd, Inox Mercantile Co Pvt Ltd, Planet View Mercantile Co Pvt Ltd and Maxgrow Finlease Pvt Ltd—which were allotted land during 2006-07.
The FIR also mentioned unknown officials of GIDC, a govt of Goa undertaking, an unknown private person and a public servant.
The ruling BJP, when it was in the opposition, had supported a people’s agitation against SEZs in general and had even made the issue its main focus during the 2007 South Goa Lok Sabha bypoll. Then chief minister Digambar Kamat had scrapped the SEZs after bowing to locals’ demands, despite reactions from the industry. In Aug 2016, former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar assured the members of the Goa assembly that ACB would be asked to expedite the investigation and submit the report.
When he was the opposition leader, former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had alleged that SEZ allotments were a major fraud and that those responsible should be taken to task. The SEZ issue had also figured in the monsoon session of the Goa assembly in 2016 and Sawant had demanded action against those responsible for the “scam”.
