Two different cases against Narvekar

Sandesh Prabhudesai

The Goa police has filed three different charge sheets against two former ministers and 27 others in connection with the sale of bogus tickets for the One-Day International between Australia and India on April 6, and a bank scam.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Dayanand Narvekar, who is also president of the Goa Cricket Association, has been indicted into two different cases relating to the ODI.

Narvekar, along with eight others, have been charge sheeted for conspiring with the ticket contractor to sell bogus tickets, numbering almost double the capacity of the Fatorda stadium, in Margao, where the match was held.

Others charged along with Narvekar 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 the 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 the IPC.

In another case -- that of endangering human life, Narvekar, Phadke and Shankardas have been charge sheeted along with GCA joint secretary Vivek Pednekar. The main charges point to security lapses and failure to open the gates on time, due to which around 15,000 cricket fans were larthicharged, dispersed and not allowed inside the stadium.

Narvekar was arrested on June 4 in the bogus tickets case while Phadke's arrest soon followed.

In another bank scam case, in Panaji, Somnath Zuwarkar, former minister and ex-chairman of the Goa State Cooperative Bank, was charge sheeted along with 19 others, including another a former chairman, the bank CEO, general manager, five managers, four directors and ex-directors, the valuer and two top builders of the state.

Incidentally, Ramchandra Muley, who had filed a complaint along with three other directors against Zuwarkar, is also indicted in the case as the whole scam started 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 [9.5 million] fraudulently during Muley's tenure. Zuwarkar, during his tenure in August 1998, is alleged to have made a one-time settlement towards their arrears of Rs 1.25 crore [10.5 million] in total violation of bank rules and NABARD guidelines.

Panaji Deputy Superintendent Alan D'Sa said the charge sheet is of provisional nature since it is only one case among ten in which a charge sheet is being filed. He informed that till date only Zuwarkar and CEO C N Salkar have been arrested, while the rest of the arrests would soon follow. All are charged with conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and corruption.

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