Money laundering case filed against Hawala operator held in Bribery scandal

Panaji: As the investigation into the bribery case involving an US firm - in which a minister of the erstwhile Congress government in Goa has been arrested -- gathers steam, the police arrested an alleged hawala operator on Friday.

The Enforcement Directorate has lodged a First Information Report in the case relating to money laundering, naming an unspecified number of unknown former Ministers and others.

Raychand Soni, who is based in Dubai, was arrested after his statement was recorded before a Judicial Magistrate, reported news agency Press Trust of India quoting Kartik Kashyap, Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch).

A court, meanwhile, extended the interim relief from arrest granted to former Chief Minister, Congress' Digambar Kamat, till August 12.

Mr Kamat and his partyman, Churchill Alemao, have been accused of accepting nearly a million dollars in bribe by two executives of the US firm Louis Berger.

Mr Alemao, who was Mr Kamat's minister of Public Works Department, has been arrested in the case and remanded in police custody for four days. Mr Kamat, who has been questioned by the police, had applied for anticipatory bail.

The controversy around Louis Berger -- part of a consortium for a big water development project in Goa -- had erupted in July when the US media reported that the firm had admitted in court to paying bribes to Indian officials to win projects in Goa and Guwahati.

The company has agreed to pay a fine of nearly 17 million dollars.