Goa whistle-blower on cricket nepotism alleges victimisation

PANAJI - A whistle-blower, who blew the lid off a Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) forgery and nepotism scandal involving a former top official and Congress legislator in Goa, has alleged that he is being victimised by the police.

Shekhar Salkar, who filed a first information report (FIR) against Goa Cricket Association (GCA) president and former deputy chief minister Dayanand Narvekar last week, has now written to state home minister Ravi Naik saying the police were acting at the behest of Narvekar.

“I had filed the complaint based on documents sourced under the Right to Information Act. Now, the police demand that I should submit the original documents, even before starting the investigation,” Salkar told IANS.

Salkar, through an RTI Act-based investigation, established that Narvekar, a former vice president of the Indian cricket’s apex body, had along with his wife, forged his son’s birth certificate four times to enable him to play in state level under-15 tournaments.

The GCA member also accused the BCCI of letting Narvekar go scot free, despite being aware of the forgery.

In his letter to the home minister, he alleged that the “police were acting at the behest of Narvekar”, Congress legislator from Aldona, and were intent on destroying the original copies of the evidence he had collected through a lot of leg work.

“I as a layman feel that the Constitution of India has given enough power to Investigating Officer to search any premises, including government and private, and gather documents which are needed to frame charges and prove them in the court of law,” Salkar said in the letter dated Dec 29.

In a terse communication to Salkar Tuesday, the investigating police officials demanded that he should submit all the original copies of documents pertaining to the investigation to the Mapusa police station.

“It is ridiculous that the onus of submitting the original copies should be asked from the complainant,” Salkar said, demanding that the case should be handed over to the Crime Branch for investigation.

Narvekar, meanwhile, has called the filing of the FIR against him as an act of political vendetta.

“The government has been overzealous in filing the FIR. How can they file a complaint of forgery against my son who was just two years old when the so-called forgery offence was committed?” Narvekar said.

Ruling out influencing of the probe, he said investigations would only go to prove his innocence.