AAP alleges its Goa face is being victimised by BJP government

Elvis Gomes after meeting ACB officials. Pic/PTI

Panaji: AAP's chief ministerial face for Goa, Elvis Gomes, yesterday appeared before ACB in connection with an inquiry into an alleged land conversion ‘scam', amid allegations by his party that he was being victimised, a charge which the ruling BJP rubbished.

Gomes, who appeared before the anti-graft agency in connection with the case, has refuted the allegations against him, saying the timing of summoning him for the probe is "suspicious."

A former IG (Prisons), 53-year-old Gomes had taken voluntary retirement from police service and joined AAP, which is making a serious bid in the assembly polls 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 sq m of land near Margao town, changed its 'zoning' (reservation) to residential, which would have increased its market value, and later gave it back to the owner in 2011, as per the ACB's FIR.

"Elvis Gomes is known all over Goa for his honesty. Being victimised by BJP government," AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

"It is an inquiry by ACB. What role do we have to play in it?" BJP's Goa unit chief Vinay Tendulkar said.