Goa Cong MLA, wife booked for disproportionate assets

Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly and Congress MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar and his wife Savitri, also a Congress leader, were on Saturday booked in connection with a 2013 disproportionate assets case. The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sleuths also raided the residence and office premises of the couple.

According to Superintendent of Police (ACB) Bosco George, an FIR has been filed against Kavlekar under sections 13(ii) read with 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, while his wife Savitri, who unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls on a Congress ticket from the Sanguem constituency in 2017, has been booked for abetting the crime.

“The raids were conducted on Saturday morning in connection with the disproportionate assets case where 14 properties worth crores of rupees were purchased in the state of Kerala. Kavlekar and his wife have amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 4.78 crore, which is around 59.21 per cent above their known sources of income,” George said at a press conference in Panaji.

The ACB does not rule out custodial interrogation of Goa Congress leader Kavlekar.

He said the properties were purchased between January 2007 and April 2013, during which Kavlekar held the post of Chairman of the Goa Industrial Development Corporation on three occasions.

The ACB raids on Saturday were conducted at the couple’s residence at Betul, in Quepem sub-district and their official premises in Margao town, located 35 km from Panaji. Reacting to the raids, Kavlekar told reporters that he had done nothing wrong. “I have been co-operating with the ACB and yet this is the fourth occasion when I have been raided. I know I have not done anything wrong,” the Leader of Opposition said.