AIRES DEMANDS RAMAKANT KHALAP’S RESIGNATION: DARES HIM TO AN OPEN DEBATE

PANJIM: Adv Aires Rodrigues has today demanded that Mr. Ramakant Khalap should resign as Chairman of the Goa Law Commission or the Goa government should sack him as he had lost all moral authority to continue in that high position.

Addressing a press conference today Adv. Aires Rodrigues stated that he reiterates and stands by every allegation made by him against former Union Law Minister and current Goa Law Commission Chairman Mr. Ramakant Khalap.

Challenging the former Union Minister to an open debate, Adv. Rodrigues has stated that he would quit the legal profession if Mr. Ramakant Khalap could prove that any of the allegations made were false.

Adv. Rodrigues stated that every issue he has raised over the years was only after a thorough study and that every allegation against Mr. Ramakant Khalap was based and backed by documentary proof.

Mr. Ramakant Khalap may be the spokesman of the Congress Party but I have never been and will never be anyone’s mouth piece, stated Adv. Rodrigues.

Stating that he had no political ambitions, Adv. Rodrigues has ridiculed Mr. Khalap’s claim that the allegations against him were politically motivated.

Adv. Rodrigues has today stated that all State Law Commissions in the country are currently headed by retired Supreme Court or High Court Judges with senior legal luminaries as members.

Adv. Rodrigues further stated that the current Goa Law Commission is headed by Mr. Ramakant Khalap an active politician who is also a spokesman of the Congress party as well as Chairman of the Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank of Goa, and that the expenditure of a whopping Rs 42,03,029 incurred by the Goa Government on the Goa Law Commission from April 2009 to Nov 2010 needs to be probed.

Adv. Rodrigues stated that on 20th January 2009, the day former Union Law Minister, Mr. Ramakant Khalap was appointed as the Chairman of the Goa Law Commission, there were three bank corruption related charge sheets pending against him.

The three charge-sheets were filed against Ramakant Khalap and others under Sections 409, 465, 418, 420 read with sections 109 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to the intention to defraud and causing loss of crores of rupees to the Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank of Goa.

Stating that the setting up of the International arbitration centre was beyond the mandate of the Goa Law Commission, Adv. Rodrigues has demanded that all the expenditure incurred on work that was not related to the Law Commission agenda should be recovered by the Goa Government from Mr. Ramakant Khalap.

Regarding the missing file, Adv. Rodrigues has stated that it needs to be explained as to how the file only re-surfaced the day the police complaint was filed against Mr. Ramakant Khalap.

Refuting Mr. Khalap’s claim that there were no retired high Court judges who could have headed the Goa Law Commission, Adv. Rodrigues has stated there were distinguished retired High Court judges and also very reputed retired District Court judges who could have also been members of the Goa Law Commission.

Adv. Aires Rodrigues has also alleged that the Goa Law Commission Chairman’s youngest son Mr. Ashwin Khalap had used his father’s position and political clout to construct on an agricultural tenanted land bearing survey no 158/8 belonging to the Comunidade of Assagao.

Adv. Rodrigues has stated that agricultural tenanted Comunidade land cannot be transferred and agricultural land being used for non- agricultural use is also not allowed and prohibited by law.

Adv. Rodrigues has stated that it was an irony that Mr. Ramakant Khalap who was publicly professing to amend Goa’s land laws to benefit the State had himself privately conspired to help his son illegally grab prime Comunidade land.