The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) National Secretary Jitendra Deshprabhu was finally arrested by the Crime Branch of the Goa Police in a criminal case of illegal mining. He had filed for an anticipatory bail in the Additional District Court which was rejected as he had ignored summons to appear in the crime branch on three occasions to answer the charges filed against him.
As expected the NCP reacted by saying that this is a part of the political vendetta against Deshprabhu. NCP's Goa observer Bharati Chawan said that Deshprabhu could not be considered guilty till he was charge-sheeted and convicted.
This would not have been the case again had the Judiciary not intervened and taken a pro-active role. It may be recalled that activists Kashinath Shetye, Ketan Govekar and Pradeep Kakodkar had in filed a complaint in the police alleging illegal mining taking place in Korgao in the property of Deshprabhu.
After the police failed to draw an FIR against Deshprabhu, they had to approach the Judicial Magistrate First Class and get directions issued to the police to register the FIR against Deshprabhu.
In other words, the political class had flexed its muscle to see that a case must not be registered against one of their own, but only because the Judiciary stepped in, could the police be made to act as per law.
Shetye and others alleged that Deshprabhu had cheated the state government to the tune of Rs 50 crore due to the illegal extraction of ore in his property located at Pernem. The case was also registered against officials of various departments saying all were directly or indirectly responsible for the government losing Rs 50 crore.
Meanwhile the Crime Branch has already arrested Gitesh Naik, who was working with Mr. Deshprabhu as a contractor to transport the ore. The State Mines and Geology Department had earlier confirmed the illegal ore extraction and slapped a fine of Rs. 1.7 crore on Mr. Deshprabhu.
It is now worth waiting to see how the ruling Congress use this situation to arm twist the NCP in their threat to contest the elections independently. One thing is certain, the Congress never fails to use any adverse situation either to its own partymen or to its coalition party, to its benefit and we can expect a twist in the tale in the days to come.
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