Narvekar
once again in a soup
Sandesh Prabhudesai
9 December 2002
Dayanand
Narvekar, Goa's deputy opposition leader, is once
again in a soup as two more different police complaints
of misappropriation have been filed against him,
related to cricket and land.
He is already facing a judicial
probe and court trials for his alleged direct
involvement in a bogus ticket scam that rocked
the country at the final ODI cricket played between
India and Australia on 6 April last year.
Narvekar, the Goa Cricket Association
president, alleged to have conspired with the
ticket contractor in printing and selling 20,000
bogus tickets while 15,000 cricket fans were lathicharged
outside the gates on Nehru Stadium here.
Goa's former deputy chief minister
has now once again been brought under police investigations
with Dr Shekhar Salkar, the GCA executive member
and member of the ruling BJP, filing a criminal
complaint against Narvekar.
According to Dr Salkar, Narvekar,
along with his GCA secretary and treasurer, has
allegedly misappropriated around Rs six million
by showing wrong book entries without producing
necessary vouchers and 'cash in hand' to the tune
of Rs 1.3 million, with no records of expenditure
available.
The second case relates to the prime
land in Panaji, along the Miramar beach here,
where agricultural land was changed to commercial
purpose without following necessary procedure
and also by changing names of the tenants. The
land originally belonged to the Church authorities.
According to the chief town planner,
the complainant, the illegalities were committed
when Narvekar was holding the ministry of town
and country planning during 1996 to 1998. Goa's
most expensive bungalows have come up on this
stretch along the coastline.
While the Panaji police immediately
moved into action by raiding the GCA office to
seize documents and interrogated several GCA officials,
Narvekar dubbed it as an attempt of the BJP-led
government to divert public attention since chief
minister Manohar Parrikar has failed to serve
the public at large.
He has also challenged Dr Salkar
to face the GCA general body meeting on 15 December,
stating that he will explain the whole issue there.
"These are the same pressure tactics to harass
those political opponents who oppose anti-people
government policies", he said.
Meanwhile, Narvekar has fallen sick.
He failed to attend the court case regarding the
ticket scam while the police do not rule out the
possibility of arresting the former deputy chief
minister once again.
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