Expressing satisfaction over Goa Police's probe into the Louis Berger bribery case, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today said he does not feel the need to hand over the inquiry to CBI.
"As our police officials are doing a good job, I do not feel that there is a necessity of giving the Louis Berger case to CBI," Parsekar told reporters outside the state Legislative Assembly complex amid the ongoing session.
His statement came a day after former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat moved for anticipatory bail in connection with the bribery case.
"I feel that a person goes for anticipatory bail when he feels afraid of being involved in the case," Parsekar said.
The Goa Crime Branch investigating the case has already questioned Kamat and the then Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao in connection with the pay-off scandal.
Kamat moved the bail application yesterday before District and Sessions Court which is expected to come up for hearing later today.
The 61-year-old Congress leader was heading the state between 2007 and 2012 when the New Jersey-based consultancy firm allegedly paid the bribes.
Two senior officials - Japan International Cooperation Agency's (JICA) former project director Anand Wachasunder and Louis Berger's ex-Vice President Satyakam Mohanty - have so far been arrested by the Crime Branch in connection with the case.
US multinational Louis Berger has been charged with bribing Indian officials with several crores of rupees to win two major water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati.
The alleged bribery of USD 976,630 for a Goa project included kickbacks to a minister, the details of which have not been disclosed by the US Department of Justice.
All the tenders for the JICA project, of which Louis Berger was the consultant, were issued as per Central Public Works Department prescribed norms.
