Goa CM wants relative suspended in graft case

Panaji: Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Thursday said his brother-in-law and another government official caught in a bribery case should be immediately suspended.

The chief minister also promised not to interfere in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) investigation in the case.

"He (Dilip Malvankar) is my relative. One cannot keep track of every relative. Law will take its own course. I never interfere in police investigations," Parsekar said.

"Both of them should be suspended immediately from the Industrial Development Corporation," he added.

Malvankar, along with Ajit Gaunekar, both field managers at the state government-operated Industrial Development Corporation, were arrested by ACB sleuths on Tuesday night while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs. 1 lakh from the promoter of a Jaipur-based firm, in order to facilitate the allotment of a plot to set up an ayurvedic medicine production project at Tuem industrial estate in north Goa, 45 km from here.

The Congress, meanwhile, demanded that Parsekar should give up the home ministry portfolio, fearing his interference into the anti-graft investigation against his brother-in-law Dilip Malvankar.

"It is very disgraceful that the chief minister`s close relative was caught red-handed by the ACB. The chief minister should give up the home portfolio for a free and fair probe," Congress spokesperson Durgadas Kamat said in a statement here.