GHOST MUNICIPAL WORKERS AT CCP

Panaji (Goa): A ‘ghost municipal worker’ and a document missing from chief minister’s office have come to the fore in two complaints against an ex-IAS officer and his bureaucrat wife, and a retired labour Commissioner. The Panaji police in their reports to the chief judicial magistrates have sought to close the cases which was strongly opposed by the complainant Advocate Aires Rodrigues.

In the first matter which is as old as 9-year-old, acting on his complaint on September 1, 2008 Panaji police registered an FIR under sections 406, 468, 420, 120-B read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code against then Urban Development Secretary R P Pal and his wife Putul Pal for having criminally conspired with officials enabling wife Pal to draw Rs 147 a day from September 2006 as a daily wages sweeper at the Corporation of City of Panaji. The amount was being drawn by her in the name of one Rakeshwari Hannur who never worked at the CCP.

Within months of the FIR, Pal was elevated as an IAS officer and transferred to Pondicherry and seven years later, the Panaji Police in February 2015 filed a closure report stating Putul Pal is in Pondicherry and Rakeshwari Hannur was not traceable. The police further stated that the required special type of filter and forensic light courses were also not available with the Finger Print Bureau.

In the other case the Panaji Police acting on a complaint filed by Rodrigues in July 2010 registered an FIR against the then Labour Commissioner Fatima Rodrigues for allegedly fabricating his letter head to make a representation dated June 10, 2010 to the Chief Minister in his name that she be promoted to the post of Labour Commissioner from the post of Deputy Labour Commissioner that she was occupying.

In May 2015 while seeking to close the case after five years the Panaji Police in its closure report has stated that though the complaint filed by Adv Rodrigues against Fatima Rodrigues who has now retired as Labour Commissioner is true, the original fabricated letterhead could not be traced in the Chief Minister’s office.

Adv Rodrigues today argued before Judge Kavlekar that the police in violation of law had vitiated the entire investigation in both cases only to shield the accused officers.

Seeking that the Court reject both the closure reports filed by the Panaji Police, Adv Rodrigues urged the Court to direct the Panaji Police to further investigate both the cases and that the Court also monitor the investigation. The CJM has reserves the order to pronounce on July 21.

Team TNV