Judge BP Deshpande of the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act today questioned the Crime Branch for the over two year delay to obtain sanction to prosecute the accused in the Serula Communidade cheating and land grab case filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues against Goa’s Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar.

Directing the Crime Branch to submit to the Court all the correspondence with the government pertaining to the obtaining of the sanction, Judge Deshpande adjourned the matter to July 12^th for further directions.

SP of Crime Branch Karthik Kashyap in his affidavit to the Court has stated that all efforts were being made to obtain the sanction from the Government to prosecute the accused and that the opinion of the Director of Prosecution was being sought before filing the final report.

Adv. Aires Rodrigues however argued before Judge Deshpande that the Crime Branch in an attempt to shield Dilip Parulekar had not yet sought sanction to prosecute him.

Adv. Rodrigues further alleged that the Crime Branch was trying to vitiate the investigation by declaring that Dilip Parulekar was a victim who was misled by the Communidade officials to garb the land.

The Court on 17^th March this year while rejecting the Crime Branch’s plea for further time to probe the case had directed that the investigation be completed forthwith after Adv. Aires Rodrigues pointed out to Judge Deshpande that the Crime Branch was intentionally dragging its feet in the investigation to shield Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar.

Adv. Rodrigues today reminded the Court that on 7^th October 2014 the Court had directed the Crime Branch to complete the investigation within a month, but that the police in contravention of law were very high-handedly going out of the way to shield the Tourism Minister.

On a petition filed by Adv. Aires Rodrigues under Section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Mapusa JMFC on 16^th January 2014 had directed the Porvorim Police to register an FIR for offences under sections 119, 120, 420 read with 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, against Tourism Minister Mr. Dilip Parulekar, Mr. Peter Martins, then attorney of Communidade of Serula and Mrs. Irene Sequeira, then Administrator of Communidade of Bardez.  The investigation of the case was later transferred to the Crime Branch.

Adv. Rodrigues in his complaint had drawn the Court’s attention that the 599 sq mt of prime land on the Chogm Road at Porvorim was given away to Dilip Parulekar without any auction and without following the procedure contemplated under the Code of Communidade and that the whole intention was to fraudulently facilitate the doling out to Dilip Parulekar prime Communidade land.

Adv. Rodrigues further stated that the Communidade of Serula granted the 599 sq. mts to Dilip Parulekar for a mere Rs. 3,41,320/- though the value of the land was otherwise worth more than a crore and that Dilip Parulekar in connivance with Peter Martins and Irene Sequeira had grabbed that Communidade land at a throw away price by illegal means.