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File FIR in mining scam, HC tells Goa

PANAJI — The Bombay High Court bench in Panaji on Tuesday directed the Goa government to file an FIR against over 150 people — including politicians, mine owners and bureaucrats — who have been indicted in the Justice M B Shah Commission report.

The order was issued by Bombay High Court Chief Justice Mohit Shah following a petition by an electricity department employee, Kashinath Shetye, who said that the Rs350 billion scam exposed by the judicial commission should be probed by police.

Illegal mining would have attracted Dawood: CM PANAJI — Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said that if illegal mining had continued in Goa, notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim would have invested in it, and wondered if anyone had the capacity to arrest him. Parrikar was speaking in the Goa assembly. Dawood Ibrahim, India’s most wanted don considered to be an architect of the 1993 Mumbai blasts. “I don’t know if anyone has the capacity to arrest Dawood (Ibrahim). “The government of India has been trying this for the last 25 years,” Parrikar said. Parrikar said there was so much money involved in the illegal mining industry in Goa that the underworld would soon have been attracted to it. “If mining illegalities had continued, then Dawood would have also come here. The kind of money involved in illegal mining would have attracted the underworld,” Parrikar said. The Supreme Court has imposed a ban on mining in Goa following on a petition filed by an environmental NGO, the Goa Foundation, represented by lawyer Prashant Bhushan. The petition came in the wake of the tabling of the Justice Shah Commission of inquiry report, which exposed a Rs350 billion illegal mining scam in Goa. — IANS

Justice Shah directed the state government to “file an FIR (First Information eport) in respect of offences alleged to have been committed by persons responsible for illegal mining in the state of Goa, including the lessees of the mines and all those who permitted such illegal mining of iron ore and manganese ore, in contravention of the relevant statutory provisions”.

The chief justice said that the FIR had to be filed “within a period of six weeks”.

Shetye had first filed a complaint with the crime branch, which had not filed an FIR, forcing the petitioner to complain before the high court.

The M B Shah Commission report had exposed a Rs350 billion illegal mining scam, in which politicians, bureaucrats and mining companies were indicted.

Mining in Goa has been banned for over five months now by the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and local environmental NGOs.

Meanwhile, Goa Police claimed on Tuesday that a suspended mines department employee masterminded the killing of a small time real estate dealer, who was found dead with his throat slit on March 21.

Robert Gonsalves, a suspended draftsman in the state government’s mines department, had conspired to murder Hassan Khan and had roped in a Karnataka-based contract killer and several others to commit the murder, police said.

“We have arrested six people, including Anil Bhoe, Rai Patil, Shivaji Patil and Arun Patil, all from Belgaum,” the police spokesperson said.

Gonsalves was suspended from service following his role in the multi-billion rupees mining scam which was exposed by the Justice M B Shah Commission report.

Gonsalves was also in a real estate deal partnership with Hassan, and conspired to murder him over a dispute over a small construction project.

Hassan was found with his throat slit in his car at a desolate place in Bambolim, on the outskirts of the capital on March 21.