SIT on illegal mining questions Goa ex-CM Kamat for three hours

Panaji, Nov 24 (IANS) Former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was on Friday questioned for nearly three hours by Goa Police Crime Branch's Special Investigation Team (SIT) in an illegal mining case.

Kamat, who filed for anticipatory bail this week and was granted interim relief by a trial court, said he was cooperating with the investigators.

"There are certain files on which they had some questions," Kamat told reporters after his questioning. He however, refused to comment on whether action against him was a result of "political vendetta".

Kamat, along with then Mines Principal Secretary Rajiv Yaduvanshi and several other bureaucrats, is accused of allowing mining companies to avail of the 'condonation of delay' clause to renew their iron ore mining leases in return for bribes.

Yaduvanshi, currently Health Secretary in the Delhi government, has turned an approver.

Superintendent of Police (SIT) Karthik Kashyap did not rule out summoning Kamat again for questioning.

"We interrogated him for three hours because we wanted certain clarifications. We will call him as and when required," Kashyap told the media.

Kamat's son Yogiraj and brother in-law Satish Lawande have already been questioned in the case.

Kamat is a Congress legislator from Margao and had been a minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government in the early 2000s.