By: Savio Rodrigues
2nd of the series of investigation
In 2008, the People’s Movement for Civic Action (PMCA) and the Goa Foundation approached the High Court for a CBI inquiry into the disappearance of all files containing approvals relating to the construction of the Aldeia de Goa complex coming up at Bambolim, Goa. Their application stated that the files containing the approved plans had disappeared from the offices of the Town and Country Planning Department and the Panchayat of Bambolim in September-October 2007.
The High Court had directed the PIs of Panjim and Agassaim Police Stations in November 2007 to file reports every two weeks on their investigations in the file disappearances. However, even six months later the files were not recovered. Unhappy with the state of affairs, the High Court in April 2008 issued notice to the Goa Government to show-cause why the matter should not be handed over to the CBI since the agencies of the Goa Government were obviously unable to satisfactorily conclude the investigations.
At that time, the Advocate General had informed the Court that there was no need of the CBI “at this stage” since the investigations are in the “right direction.”
Despite three years having passed since then, nothing had come out of the investigations. The Division Bench, perusing the Court record, observed that the last report was filed in August 2008.
The application filed by the two NGOs states that an updated report of the police investigation is required for the purpose of presenting in the Supreme Court of where Aldeia de Goa filed its own petition (under Article 32 of the Constitution) seeking Supreme Court approval for the very same plans whose authenticity is being investigated by the High Court.
PMCA and Goa Foundation had effectively shown in the proceedings before the High Court that the plans produced by the company are forgeries and do not have the approval of any of the Government authorities, except the Bambolim Panchayat, who itself has no record of the permissions given to Aldeia de Goa, except Xerox copy of plans supplied to them by the project authorities. Hence the importance of the investigations to locate the missing files.
