After 27 years, local court acquits Mauvin Godinho in power rebate scam

Panaji: A case spanning 27 years that went up to the Supreme Court ended on Monday after a local court acquitted transport and industries minister Mauvin Godinho and others charged for alleged corruption and criminal conspiracy in the controversial Rs 4.5-crore power rebate scam.

Former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, as an opposition MLA in 1998, was the first to file a complaint against Godinho and others alleging a scam, considered to be Parrikar’s biggest expose in the early years of his political career.On Parrikar’s complaint, the crime branch in 1998 registered FIR against Godinho, the then chief electrical engineer T Nagarajan and others for alleged criminal conspiracy to cause wrongful gain to Mormugao Steel and Binani Zinc and corresponding loss to govt.Godinho and Nagarajan were accused of abusing their official position and showing undue favour to the two companies to enable them to avail 25% rebate of power supply and causing loss of Rs 4.5 crore to govt.In Dec 2006, a special court ordered charges to be framed against them.They challenged the order in the high court. In Oct 2007, the high court partially allowed their petition — framing of charge was allowed only for offences under Prevention of Corruption Act, and for criminal conspiracy.

They challenged this in the apex court.The SC refused to intervene and in Jan 2018, dismissed their appeal.The prosecution presented 43 witnesses before the trial court. The final arguments were heard from July 17 to Aug 7 this year.Monday’s order comes as a big relief to Congress-turned-BJP politician Godinho in the wake of Parliament discussing a bill to remove ministers who are arrested and jailed for 30 days for a criminal offence.In Dec 2016, Godinho quit Congress and joined BJP when Parrikar was the defence minister, and was subsequently inducted into the cabinet.Godinho was present in court at Merces on Monday afternoon along with the other accused when special judge Irshad Agha pronounced the judgment acquitting them of all charges.Besides Godinho and Nagarajan, Mormugao Steel former executive director R K Radhakrishna, Binani Zinc Ltd former general manager Krishna Kumar and two companies—Mormugao Steel and Binani Zinc, now known as Goa Glass Fibre—were the other accused in the case.The court abated charges against Vittal Bhandari, former managing director of Mormugao Steel, as he is not alive.