Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI. The North Goa Special Court on Monday acquitted Panchayats Minister Mauvin Godinho in the 1998 power rebate scam case. Godinho, who was facing trial for over two decades, was cleared of all charges by the court.
The power rebate scam came to light in 1998 when former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar exposed it.
As per information, the witnesses either expired or not found at their place of residence.
The Special Court had examined some witnesses earlier in the case. In 1998, the then Leader of the Opposition Manohar Parrikar exposed the scam.
In 2001 an FIR was registered by the Crime Branch against the former power minister in the Congress government, who is presently a minister in the BJP government.
It may be recalled that the Special Court on July 16, 2022 had dismissed the applications filed by Godinho, Katreddi Venkata Sahaye Krishnakumar and M/s Glass Fibre Division, (a division of Binani Zinc Ltd) presently known as M/s Goa Glass Fibre Ltd for discharging them in the power scam case.
The Crime Branch had filed a chargesheet against Mauvin Godinho, besides two industrial units and four others in connection with the alleged Rs 4.52 crore power rebate scam.
Earlier, in October 2017, the High Court discharged the charges framed under some Sections but held that there is prima facie material to frame charges against all the accused under Sections 13 (1) (d) (i) and 13 (1) (d) (ii) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 read with Section 120-B of Indian Penal Code.
According to the petitioner, the Goa government issued a notification dated June 27, 1998, providing 25 per cent rebate to all industrial units who had applied for high tension (HT) and low tension power (LT) supply. The industries were eligible for concessional tariff from the date on which the supply of electricity was made available.
Current Minister Mauvin Godinho was the Power Minister when the notification was issued. Besides Godinho, former chief electrical engineer Nagarajan and eight others including management of some industries have been named as accused. However, Nagarajan died since then.
