In the dark, pre-dawn hours of a rainy Thursday, groggy-eyed reporters looked up as they heard some rustling from behind the closed doors of the Goa Police Crime Branch, located on the banks of the monsoon-swollen Mandovi river in Panjim.
A giant hulk of a man, six foot four in his black shoes, with black creased trousers and a black rumpled shirt, was being escorted out for a mandatory medical check-up, a few hours after his arrest. His face appeared as saggy as his grim ensemble.
He smiled with effort at the media crews and repeated well-rehearsed lines about his innocence and how he was being made a political scape-goat in the Louis Berger bribery scandal. Then, 66-year-old Churchill Alemao flashed a "V for Victory" sign at the cameras. The victory sign is where the similarity with his political namesake, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, ends.
Chequered career
Over the last 25 years or so, Churchill Alemao has come to symbolise a style of politics that is better suited to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts rather than a democracy. During that time, he has been chief minister, a member of Parliament, a minister in the state cabinet, a member of the legislative assembly, a Congress leader and the patron of one of the country's more successful football clubs (named Churchill Brothers).
On Thursday, Alemao became the first political casualty in the Louis Berger bribery scandal, in which several Goan politicians and officials are alleged to have benefitted from a $976,630 bribe paid by officials of the US company in 2010 to secure a Rs 1,031-crore water and sewage management project funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency.
According to police officials, Alemao could hold a key to nailing former chief minister Digambar Kamat, who Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has alleged, is also linked to the scam.
Parrikar said last month that Alemao was implicated in the deal since he was the public works minister at the time. "...But since the project also deals with financial approval, there is a likelihood that another minister might be involved,” Parrikar said on July 19. "The incident happened when the Digambar Kamat-led [Congress] government was in power."
After his arrest, Alemao maintained that he was the victim of a political game. "They are harassing me," he said. "I said I will come [to the Crime Branch] anytime but they still arrested me. I am innocent. I have not robbed anything. Why should I confess or apply for anticipatory bail?”
Controversial past
For Alemao, however, the latest controversy is just one of the many he has weathered in his multi-faceted career as an alleged smuggler, Konkani language activist, football promoter and politician.
One of six brothers – the others bear the equally wondrous names of Ciabro, Alvernaz, Roosevelt, Joaquim and Kennedy – Churchill Alemao helped his family run a fish trawler business in the late '80s and '90s. It was alleged that the trawler business was a front for lucrative smuggling activity.
In 1992, Alvernaz Alemao was killed by a customs officer while allegedly transporting a gold consignment. Two years later, Churchill Alemao was chargesheeted for smuggling.
In between the mysterious, midnight coastal landings however, Alemao built a macho, romantic image as the Robin Hood of Catholic-dominated Salcete taluka. His ring-studded fingers seemed to be as adept at taking as in giving.
“He had absolutely no qualms about barging into anyone’s office to ask for money, whether it was to fund his football team or for anything else,” former Union minister of state for law Ramakant Khalap told Scroll.in.
This was the image that propelled him into politics in the mid-1980s with the agitation to secure official-language status for Konkani. During the course of the protests, he was charged with trampling on the national tricolour, though the case was later closed for lack of evidence. In the 1990s, he was also detained under the National Security Act.
Alemao’s political career peaked early, when in 1990, at the age of 41, he became a chief minister for precisely 18 days.
His later political trajectory involved convenient foxtrotting with regional parties and the Congress, cashing in on both his Robin Hoodesque charisma and his popularity among the Catholic community, which accounts for a little more than a fourth of the state’s population. Last year, he contested the Lok Sabha as a candidate for the Trinamool Congress.
“I don’t think Congress has benefited from Churchill,” Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said. "In fact, the party’s image was damaged because of him. The presence of such people has in fact polluted the party."
Sting operation
In 2005, Alemao, as a Congress MP, was also caught in a sting operation broadcast on Star News, seeking a commission to approve a Konkani mobile library project proposed by this writer, who was then part of an undercover investigative journalists’ collective.
Alemao, a man who has always turned adversity into an opportunity, launched a counteroffence by starting a new political party and emerging as a key player in the 2007 state assembly election.
Though he has been a political spent force over the last few years, it remains to be seen if Alemao can convert the Louis Berger controversy into political capital. After all, the next state elections are only a year-and-a half away.
The writer is the Goa correspondent for the Indo-Asian News Service.
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A giant hulk of a man, six foot four in his black shoes, with black creased trousers and a black rumpled shirt, was being escorted out for a mandatory medical check-up, a few hours after his arrest. His face appeared as saggy as his grim ensemble.
He smiled with effort at the media crews and repeated well-rehearsed lines about his innocence and how he was being made a political scape-goat in the Louis Berger bribery scandal. Then, 66-year-old Churchill Alemao flashed a "V for Victory" sign at the cameras. The victory sign is where the similarity with his political namesake, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, ends.
Chequered career
Over the last 25 years or so, Churchill Alemao has come to symbolise a style of politics that is better suited to the sport of Mixed Martial Arts rather than a democracy. During that time, he has been chief minister, a member of Parliament, a minister in the state cabinet, a member of the legislative assembly, a Congress leader and the patron of one of the country's more successful football clubs (named Churchill Brothers).
On Thursday, Alemao became the first political casualty in the Louis Berger bribery scandal, in which several Goan politicians and officials are alleged to have benefitted from a $976,630 bribe paid by officials of the US company in 2010 to secure a Rs 1,031-crore water and sewage management project funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency.
According to police officials, Alemao could hold a key to nailing former chief minister Digambar Kamat, who Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has alleged, is also linked to the scam.
Parrikar said last month that Alemao was implicated in the deal since he was the public works minister at the time. "...But since the project also deals with financial approval, there is a likelihood that another minister might be involved,” Parrikar said on July 19. "The incident happened when the Digambar Kamat-led [Congress] government was in power."
After his arrest, Alemao maintained that he was the victim of a political game. "They are harassing me," he said. "I said I will come [to the Crime Branch] anytime but they still arrested me. I am innocent. I have not robbed anything. Why should I confess or apply for anticipatory bail?”
Controversial past
For Alemao, however, the latest controversy is just one of the many he has weathered in his multi-faceted career as an alleged smuggler, Konkani language activist, football promoter and politician.
One of six brothers – the others bear the equally wondrous names of Ciabro, Alvernaz, Roosevelt, Joaquim and Kennedy – Churchill Alemao helped his family run a fish trawler business in the late '80s and '90s. It was alleged that the trawler business was a front for lucrative smuggling activity.
In 1992, Alvernaz Alemao was killed by a customs officer while allegedly transporting a gold consignment. Two years later, Churchill Alemao was chargesheeted for smuggling.
In between the mysterious, midnight coastal landings however, Alemao built a macho, romantic image as the Robin Hood of Catholic-dominated Salcete taluka. His ring-studded fingers seemed to be as adept at taking as in giving.
“He had absolutely no qualms about barging into anyone’s office to ask for money, whether it was to fund his football team or for anything else,” former Union minister of state for law Ramakant Khalap told Scroll.in.
This was the image that propelled him into politics in the mid-1980s with the agitation to secure official-language status for Konkani. During the course of the protests, he was charged with trampling on the national tricolour, though the case was later closed for lack of evidence. In the 1990s, he was also detained under the National Security Act.
Alemao’s political career peaked early, when in 1990, at the age of 41, he became a chief minister for precisely 18 days.
His later political trajectory involved convenient foxtrotting with regional parties and the Congress, cashing in on both his Robin Hoodesque charisma and his popularity among the Catholic community, which accounts for a little more than a fourth of the state’s population. Last year, he contested the Lok Sabha as a candidate for the Trinamool Congress.
“I don’t think Congress has benefited from Churchill,” Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said. "In fact, the party’s image was damaged because of him. The presence of such people has in fact polluted the party."
Sting operation
In 2005, Alemao, as a Congress MP, was also caught in a sting operation broadcast on Star News, seeking a commission to approve a Konkani mobile library project proposed by this writer, who was then part of an undercover investigative journalists’ collective.
Alemao, a man who has always turned adversity into an opportunity, launched a counteroffence by starting a new political party and emerging as a key player in the 2007 state assembly election.
Though he has been a political spent force over the last few years, it remains to be seen if Alemao can convert the Louis Berger controversy into political capital. After all, the next state elections are only a year-and-a half away.
The writer is the Goa correspondent for the Indo-Asian News Service.
