Hawala operator Raychand Soni, arrested by the Goa Police on Friday in the Louis Berger bribery scam, was remanded in police custody for three days by a special court here on Saturday.
The Crime Branch had summoned him from Dubai for interrogation and arrested him after recording his statement before a magistrate. Soni, the fourth person to be arrested in the case, is alleged to have supplied the cash for all transactions.
The Crime Branch opened the investigation into the charges of bribery in the JICA-funded Goa water supply and sewerage project after Louis Berger officials pleaded guilty in a New Jersey court to offering $3.9 million in bribes to secure contracts in India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait. The U.S. Justice Department did not identify the politicians and officials who were offered bribes. But documents revealed that $976,630 was paid in bribes during 2009-10 to Ministers and other officials.
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Louis Berger was part of a consortium that won the contract to execute the water and sewerage project in Goa funded by the JICA.