Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) national secretary Jitendra Deshprabhu and a top Goa mining department official are to be probed over allegations of illegal mining and abetment, respectively, a local court ordered Saturday.
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Pernem Vijayalaxmi Shivolkar directed Goa police to file a first information report (FIR) against Deshprabhu for operating an illegal bauxite mine in Pernem, 30 km from here, and the director of the state mines department Arvind Lolienkar for abetment of illegal mining by the politician.
The court was hearing a petition filed by right to information (RTI) activist Kashinath Shetye, who had appealed before it after the police failed to entertain his complaint against illegal mining by Deshprabhu.
Deshprabhu, a senior NCO official, has already been fined Rs.1.72 crore by the state mining department for illegally extracting nearly 50,000 tonnes of bauxite from an open cast mine, located in his property at Korgao village, in Pernem.
A key aide of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Prafulla Hede, who looks after the party’s affairs in the state, as state co-ordinator, has also been booked for illegal mining.
Hede has been booked by the state forest department for illegal mining near the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife sanctuary, located 80 km from here.
