Zuwarkar granted bail, Mauvin refused

Sandesh Prabhudesai
25 May 2001  

Somnath Zuwarkar, the former Congress minister and the opposition MLA, was finally granted interim bail for one month, on health grounds.

Zuwarkar, who resigned as the chairman of the Goa State Co-operative Bank two days ago, was arrested on 17 May in connection with a bank scam. After remanding him initially for five days, his remand was extended by seven more days.

The court granted him interim bail after seeking medical certificate that he will have to be shifted to Mumbai for angiography, since the Congress legislator is suffering from cardiac problem.

C N Salkar, the bank CEO and his accomplice, however is still in the police custody.

Meanwhile, another Congress legislator and former power minister Mauvin Godinho was refused anticipatory bail by the district and sessions court. He has now moved the high court, claiming to be innocent and being made victim of political revenge by the ruling BJP government.

Godinho was already arrested and released after five days for his alleged involvement in an alleged power rebate scam. But police now want to arrest him in yet another scam connected with power department.

T Nagrajan, the retired chief electrical engineer, was arrested yesterday for conspiring with Godinho in the scam. He was today remanded to four-day police custody.

While chief minister Manohar Parrikar has welcomed the police action against the Congress legislators, the opposition party has now approached governor Mohammed Fazal, urging him to intervene while describing the actions as state terrorism.

In two separate memorandums, Rajya Sabha MP Eduardo Faleiro as well as senior local leaders including president Nirmala Sawant and CLP leader Luizinho Faleiro have urged the governor to seek detailed report from the chief minister in the form of affidavit.

In violation of provisions of law, they allege that Parrikar has given instructions to the police in the matter of investigation into a criminal matter. Parrikar however denies the charge, stating that he is only monitoring the situation.

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