Panaji : Goa’s Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza on Thursday said the arrest of former public works department minister Churchill Alemao was a case of good policing and denied any political interference.
“The fact that he was arrested shows that there was evidence and the investigation was good,” D’Souza told reporters at the state secretariat.
Alemao was arrested late on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the Louis Berger bribery scandal in which Goan politicians and officials were paid $976,630 in 2010 to secure implementation rights for a Rs.1,031 crore worth water and sewage management project funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
Alemao, who briefly spoke to reporters while being taken for a medical examination early Thursday morning, said his arrest was a result of political interference.
“This is a political game. I have not done anything wrong,” Alemao told reporters outside the Crime Branch office.
D’Souza, however, denied the political interference charge.
“The police went according to procedure. There is no politics in this,” D’Souza said.
Congress legislator Digambar Kamat, who was the chief minister in 2010 has already been questioned on two occasions in connection with the bribery accusation, but on Wednesday he managed to secure an interim bail on his arrest.