Panaji: The Bombay High Court at Goa on Wednesday adjourned hearing a petition by the Government challenging orders passed by the Goa State Human Rights Commission (GSHRC) last year in connection with the police food scam at the BRICS Summit in 2016. The court didn’t grant the government interim relief.
A Division Bench was hearing the petition filed by advocate Aires Rodrigues in the alleged ₹51 lakh scam. The government in its petition had sought a stay on GSHRC’s orders on October 18 last year directing the Chief Secretary to investigate the alleged scam. It had also directed that payment to the contractor be withheld pending inquiry.
On Wednesday, Mr. Rodrigues said he would file a detailed reply on how the government had filed the petition in collusion with the food contractor, who wanted to be paid ₹51 lakh despite having supplied rotten food. In his complaint to the GSHRC on October 14 last year, Mr. Aires had claimed the principal contractor had sub-let the contract to a roadside vendor, who prepared the food on an open plot owned by the police department in Verne. The complaint claimed the food was substandard and cooked in unhygienic conditions, and that authorities had failed to make arrangements for police personnel on duty at the Summit, including food, water and toilet facilities.
