DETAINED: Churchill Alemao who was Godfather General of Goons, and Rudolf Fernandes who is contesting as the Congress candidate from Santa Cruz, were detained under the National Security Act for six months, in the early 90s by then chief minister, Ravi Naik.
By Our Crime Correspondent
Besides the seven candidates with criminal record being given tickets by the BJP, there are also candidates from the Congress, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party , Goa Forward and Aam Aadmi Party who have criminal records. In fact, atleast two of them, Churchill Alemao who is contesting the Navelim seat and Micky Pacheco who is contesting, have criminal records
In compliance with the orders of the election commission directing political parties to publish details of the criminal cases pending against candidates whom they have given tickets, the Bharatiya Janata Party has published a list. This list contains seven candidates who have been given tickets to contest the February 14 Valentine’s day poll in Goa. The BJP has also provided the reason why it felt compelled to give tickets to candidates with criminal records instead of honest candidates with integrity like Utpal Parrikar.
The BJP has given tickets to seven candidates with criminal records which include the notorious Monserrate’s. Among others are Mauvin Godinho who has been chargesheeted with the power theft case, Chandrakant Kavlekar who has been alleged to be part of the drug mafia, Govind Gaude the former minister for culture, Rohan Khaunte the former IT minister who has just joined the BJP and Krishna Salkar from Vasco Da Gama.
It may be recalled because the Supreme Court had directed the state governments to fastrack cases pending against politicians with criminal records. In conformity with the directive the cases against Babush and Jennifer Monseratte in the attack on the Panaji police station case and Mauvin Godinho in the power theft case.
The MonserattAes have been charged with damaging public property in the course of their attacks on the Panaji police station in 2006. The cases of rape and molestation against Babush Monseratte and his son Rohit have reportedly been closed. In the case of Mauvin Godinho, the Supreme court has rejected his demand for squashing the case and directed the Addl Sessions Judge, specially appointed to expedite cases against politicians to complete the hearing of the case as soon as possible.
Relative to the cases against the Monserattes and Mauvin Godinho the cases against the other BJP candidates primarily relate to corruption on the charge of disproportionate assets to the source of income. Chandrakant Kavelekar who has been given the Quepem tickets has also a case pending, against the Goa Daman and Diu gambling act which apparently refers to involvement in the matka racket. The minister of culture Govind Gaude has been accused of violating the Prevention of Public Property Act while the Vasco da Gama candidate has been accused of breaching public peace and provoking violence. The Charge against Rohan Khaunte is alleged cheating in a property offence in Bangalore. While the former PWD minister Amit Palekar has been denied a ticket, Milind Naik who has been accused of molestation has retained his ticket from Mormugao
In virtually every one of the above cases, the BJP has claimed the candidates who have been given tickets have worked tirelessly for the underprivileged, women’s empowerment, students and have been actively involved in social activities. The BJP has claimed that there were no persons that could better represent the voices of the people. In the case of Babush Monseratte, they stated that he was a senior politician who had represented the constituency several times and had been actively engaged in social service. He had a good understanding of the ground situation and the BJP believed in fielding candidates who can best represent the aspirations of the people of the constituency.
In addition
Congress Criminals
In the case of the Congress Party two former Chief Ministers Digambar Kamat who is contesting from Margao and Pratap Sing Rane the Poirem MLA have been accused of corruption in the Rs 3 Crore ore mining scam. Both the former CM’s have been accused of retrospectively converting mining concessions into leases long after the deadline for doing so had expired. In 1987 the industries had amended directing that all mining concessions should be converted into leases. A window of six months was allotted for completing the process. Most of those that had concessions did not bother as at that time there was no demand for low-grade ore. Goan ore has only 52% iron ore content and was only being exported to Japan and Korea. When the Beijing Olympics took place in 2008 there was a huge demand for ore of any grade. A number of concession holders approached Digambar Kamat and Rane to convert the concessions into leases even 10-20 years after the deadline. The Supreme court considered the mining operations on the leases which retrospectively were given as illegal and held the Chief Minister guilty of corruption.
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party’s (MGP) Criminals
There are criminal cases pending against three candidates given a ticket by the MGP. The three MGP ticket holders are Siroda candidate Sanket Mule, sanvordem candidate Vinayak Gawas, and Mandrem candidate Jit Arolkar. The cases against MGP candidates include cheating with respect to property, attempt to murder and criminal trespassing.
The MGP has given no reason for giving Arolkar the ticket for the Mandrem constituency despite his criminal antecedents.
Other criminal candidates
• Among the criminal records of the other candidates, the most notorious is Dayanand Narvekar was implicated in the cricket ticket scam and accused of molesting his secretary in the speaker’s chamber when he was presiding over the assembly.
• There are several cases against Rudolph Fernandes including one of attempting to start a Goa Matka and an assault on the then chief reporter of Herald Anthony Fernandes.
• The charges of smuggling against Churchill Alemao have been compounded after levying a fine on him and his brothers in the infamous Varca gold smuggling case. Churchill is now part of the TMC and Dayanand Narvekar is contesting as an independent after the AAP denied them tickets. Churchill Alemao and Rudolph Fernades were also detained under the National Security Act by then chief Minster Ravi Naik.
• Mickey Pacheco who was denied the Congress ticket from Benaulim has now joined the NCP. Mickey was convicted for assaulting a junior engineer of the electricity department. He was also charged with abetment of suicide in the case of Nadia Torrado, a 27-year-old who allegedly was having an affair with Mickey Pacheco. Nadia died after consuming rat poison.
• A case has been filed against Vishwajit Rane for corruption in appointing of multi utility workers in GMC. It has been pointed that over 90% of these are from the Sattari constituency.
• There is even a charge against the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for increasing the marks of a relative in the remedial exam conducted on January 5th 2022. The same was alleged my Fatorda candidate Vijay Sardessai.