Congress Working Committee Member and former Goa Congress President, Girish Chodankar, has hit out at the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government after the acquittal of Transport and Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho in the infamous 1998 Power Rebate Scam. Calling the verdict a “mockery of justice,” Chodankar said it exposes the BJP’s hypocrisy and selective fight against corruption.
“This case was exposed by none other than late Manohar Parrikar, who as Leader of Opposition accused Godinho of granting an illegal 25% power rebate to two industrial units, causing a ₹4.5 crore loss to Goa. On his complaint, the Crime Branch filed an FIR in 1998, charging Godinho with forgery, cheating, abuse of power and criminal conspiracy. He was even arrested in 2001, when Parrikar was Chief Minister. Parrikar and BJP gained political capital out of this and tried to damage reputation of our party.
The High Court in 2007 and the Supreme Court in 2018 found enough evidence to proceed with trial. Now, 27 years later, Godinho is acquitted. What changed? Was Parrikar wrong, or has the BJP conveniently gone silent because Godinho sits in their cabinet today?” Chodankar asked.
He accused the Sawant government of “double standards and political convenience” when dealing with corruption. “When it’s the Opposition, the BJP rushes to appeal. When it’s their own minister, they look the other way. Goa wants to know whether this government will challenge the acquittal in the High Court? Or will it quietly bury Parrikar’s own allegations? Either they appeal, or they must admit Parrikar misled Goans for decades,” Chodankar said.
Highlighting the public cost, Chodankar pointed out: “For 27 years, successive governments spent crores of taxpayer money on investigations, lawyers and court proceedings in this case. Will the BJP tell Goans whether this money was justified, or simply wasted for political drama?”
He also warned that this silence could embolden other tainted ministers. “Will Babush Monserrate also get a free pass in the Panaji Police Station attack case, just because he’s in the BJP camp now?”