NT Reporter
Panaji
Congress Working Committee member and former Goa Congress president, Girish Chodankar, lashed out at the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government and raised several questions over the acquittal of Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho in the 1998 power rebate case.
“This case was exposed by none other than former CM Manohar Parrikar, who as opposition leader accused Godinho of granting a 25% power rebate to two industrial units, causing a Rs 4.5 crore loss to Goa. On his complaint, the Crime Branch filed an FIR in 1998, charging Godinho with forgery, cheating, abuse of power and criminal conspiracy. He was even arrested in 2001, when Parrikar was Chief Minister,” Chodankar said.
He said that Parrikar and BJP gained political capital out of the issue and attempted to damage the reputation of the Congress party.
The High Court in 2007 and Supreme Court in 2018 found enough evidence to proceed with trial, Chodankar said.
“Now, 27 years later, Godinho is acquitted. What changed? Was Parrikar wrong, or has the BJP conveniently gone silent because Godinho is in their cabinet today?”
Chodankar said.
“When it’s the opposition, the BJP rushes to appeal. But when it’s their own minister they look the other way,” he said.
Goa wants to know whether this government will challenge the acquittal in the High Court, Chodankar said. “Or will it quietly bury Parrikar’s own allegations? Either they appeal, or they must admit Parrikar misled Goans for decades,” he said.
Highlighting the public cost, Chodankar said that for 27 years, successive governments spent crores of taxpayer money on investigations, lawyers and court proceedings
in this case.
“Will BJP tell Goans whether this money was justified, or simply wasted for political drama?
he said.
