Panaji: Aam Aadmi Party's chief ministerial candidate in forthcoming Goa Assembly polls, Elvis Gomes appeared before state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday, in connection with an inquiry into a land conversion 'scam'.
Gomes walked into the office of ACB here around 10.30 a.m. on Monday. Several AAP volunteers displaying placards stood outside in Altinho locality of Panaji.
The 53-year-old AAP candidate, who would be contesting from Cuncolim in South Goa, had been announced as chief ministerial candidate of the party for the state Assembly polls due in early 2017.
Gomes, who was then managing director of Goa Housing Board, and Nilkant Halarnkar, its chairman at that time, allegedly acquired about 30,000 square metres of land near Margao town, changed its 'zoning' (reservation) which would have increased its market value, and later gave it back to the owner in 2011, as per the ACB's FIR.
The board had acquired the land for building residential units and allegedly got its zoning changed from 'orchard' to 'settlement'.
However, Gomes had refuted the allegations against him and said that the timing of his summoning for the inquiry is suspicious.
The AAP leader refused to talk to media as he walked into the ACB office. However, the party volunteers displayed placards that asked people to choose between "non-corrupt Gomes" and BJP Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
