Click to play videoMumbai/Panaji: Goa's controversial Education Minister, Atanasio Babush Monserrate, was questioned for over six hours by the Customs Department in Mumbai on Saturday. After Monserrate failed to explain why he was carrying about Rs 25 lakh worth unaccounted cash, a case was registered against him under the Customs and the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
Monserrate, a member of the Congress party, was caught with the cash last week at the Mumbai airport.
"He should be sacked, he is a smuggler according to the customs law," demanded BJP leader Manohar Parrikar.
But Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, whose government has a slim majority, has been backing Monserrate.
"The customs authorities have asked him to submit certain documents. He has all the documents that have been asked for and he will submit to them," said Kamat.
Infamously called the bad boy of Goa, in 2006 Monserrate was accused of altering Goa's land development plan in favor of the builder lobby. Public outrage on the issue forced him to resign as minister of town planning.
In 2008, Monserrate was arrested for attempted murder after he and his supporters attacked a police station in Panjim, injuring 32 policemen, allegedly after the police failed to react when one of his supporters was beaten up.
"If police are not arresting the person in the given deadline, we will take law into our hands and enter the police station," he had said then.
Days later, Monserrate's 21-year-old son Rohit was charged with raping a German minor girl. But the girl's mother later withdrew the complaint and Rohit Monserrate walked free.
At a time when Anna Hazare's fast has made corruption a focal point, Monserrate's detention at Mumbai airport and his subsequent release is an embarrassment Goa's Congress government could well have done without.
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