Narvekar-Zuwarkar chargesheeted

Sandesh Prabhudesai
5 July 2001  

Goa police have filed three different chargesheets against two former ministers, relating to bogus ticket scam of cricket ODI and a bank scam, along with 27 others, after month-long investigations.

Former deputy chief minister Dayanand Narvekar, who is also the president of Goa Cricket Association, has been indicted into two different cases related to the final ODI played here on 6 April between India and Australia.

Narvekar, along with eight others, has been chargesheeted for conspiring with the ticket contractor into selling bogus tickets, numbering almost double the capacity of the Fatorda stadium in Margao.

Others charged along with him are ousted GCA treasurer Rama Shankardas, secretary Vinod Phadke, ticket contractor Chinmay Fallari, his brother Devdatt and brother-in-law Venkat Raut Desai, Narvekar's brother-in-law Eknath Naik and Joaquim Peres.

Jairaman Rangaswami from Sivkasi, who had provided them contacts in his hometown for printing bogus tickets, has been left out as a state witness. Besides criminal conspiracy, charges include cheating and forgery-related sections under IPC.

In another case of endangering human life, Narvekar, Phadke and Shankardas have been chargesheeted along with GCA joint secretary Vivek Pednekar. The main charges point out to security lapses and not opening the gates, due to which around 15,000 cricket fans were finally larthicharged and dispersed.

After filing the FIR on 7 April, PI Umesh Gaonkar had started arresting within three days, beginning with Shankardas and Fallari. After going into vigorous court battle over anticipatory bail applications up to the Supreme Court, Narvekar was finally arrested on 4 June, followed by Phadke. They were re-arrested this week in the second case.

In another bank scam in Panaji, Somnath Zuwarkar, former minister and ex-chairman of Goa State Co-operative Bank, has been chargesheeted along with 19 others including another former chairman, bank CEO, general manager, five managers, four directors and ex-directors each, the valuer as well as two top builders of the state.

Incidentally, Ramchandra Muley, who had filed a complaint along with three other directors against Zuwarkar, is also being indicted in the case as the whole scam had begun when the former was the bank chairman in 1996.

The Panaji police have established that Essar Builders was given a loan of Rs 90 lakh in a fraudulent manner during Muley's tenure. Zuwarkar, during his tenure in August 1998, made one-time settlement for their arrears of Rs 1.25 crore in total violation of bank rules and NABARD guidelines.

Panaji DySP Alan D'Sa said the chargesheet is of provisional nature since it is only one case among ten in which a chargesheet is being filed. They have also arrested only Zuwarkar and CEO C N Salkar till date, while rest of the arrests would follow. All of them are charged for conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and corruption.

While two legislators - Zuwarkar and Narvekar - are being chargesheeted, the police have sought the governor's sanction to file chargesheet against former power minister Mauvin Godinho. He was arrested twice in May, in two different cases of multi-crore power rebate scam.

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