PANAJI: The Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Goa police issued summons on Friday to former bureaucrat Elvis Gomes, who recently took voluntary retirement from service to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The summons, in connection with a housing scam, have come just four days after AAP named him their chief ministerial candidate.
Mr. Gomes and Nilkant Halankar, former Minister for Housing in the previous Congress-NCP alliance government, have been asked to report to the investigating officer on December 26, a senior ACB official told The Hindu on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Gomes and Mr. Halarnkar were booked under Section 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) earlier this year. Mr. Gomes was then a serving bureaucrat.
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The two have been accused of scrapping the official acquisition of a piece of land measuring 30,256 sq mts in Margao, south Goa, without following the proper procedure, allowing vested interests to purchase the land subsequently.
During his visit to Goa last week, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP co-convenor Arvind Kejriwal had described Mr. Gomes as an honest officer.
Mr. Gomes called the accusation “political victimisation” and said he had done nothing illegal.
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Addressing a press conference in the evening, Mr. Gomes said he was not holding office when the land acquisition file was moved. “We demand that all land acquisition procedures initiated and dropped in the last ten years, during the tenures of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party coalition and the current BJP-led coalition, be probed,” said Mr. Gomes.