Goa CMO examining Lokayukta order against BJP MLA

Panaji, Sep 18 A day after the Goa Lokayukta passed an order which indicts BJP MLA and former Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar in a disproportionate assets case, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that his office is examining the order against the legislator.

The order by Lokayukta P.K. Mishra late on Thursday, not only indicted the BJP MLA but also said former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar had shirked his responsibility and ignored the file which contained details of Madkaikar's disproportionate assets.

The order also held the then SP (Anti-Corruption Branch) Priyanka Kashyap guilty of dereliction of duty in not processing the file.

Madkaikar was in Parrikar's cabinet as Power Minister. Sawant succeeded Parrikar as CM, after the latter's death in March 2019.

When asked for comments on the Lokayukta order, Sawant said that his office was in receipt of the order.

"I will speak about it later," Sawant said.

On his last day in office on Thursday as the Goa Lokayukta, P.K. Misra, a former Patna High Court Chief Justice, had directed that an FIR be filed by the ACB against Madkaikar for possessing assets disproportionate to his known income.

"The file was sent to the then Chief Minister for the purpose of getting permission to register FIR and to investigate thereafter. However, the note sheets indicate that the then Chief Minister had merely endorsed that 'since the matter was pending before the Lokayukta there was no necessity of parallel investigation'," the order said.

"It is crystal clear that the then CM avoided the responsibility obviously because the present respondent was serving as a minister and an MLA belonging to the ruling party... It is evident that the ACB and the then chief minister have shirked and shied away from their responsibility by not registering FIR and conducting any investigation whatsoever on the pretext that the matter was pending before the Lokayukta," Mishra said.

( With inputs from IANS )