Translation of deeds of property registered in Kerala from Malayalam to English was among the key reasons which could have delayed a probe into Goa opposition leader and Congress MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar's disproportionate assets for four years.
Three-time MLA Kavlekar and his wife were booked and their properties raided on Saturday by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) over allegations that they possessed disproportionate assets amounting to Rs 4.78 crore, in connection with the probe which began in 2013.
A large part of the Kavlekar couple's assets are locked in 14 properties in Kerala, some of the them in the state's picturesque Perunad village in Pathanamthitta district.
One of the reasons for the delay in filing the FIR, according to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, is that the ACB took a while to collect and translate the property deeds and other documents, which are originally in the Malayalam language.
"They took some time to collect documents and translate them," Parrikar told reporters on Saturday.
Kavlekar and his wife, also a Congress leader, have been accused of accumulating the disproportionate assets during his tenure as chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation on three occasions from January 2007 to 2012.
The action by the ACB comes soon after a close aide of former chief ninister and Congress leader Digambar Kamat was arrested in connection with an illegal mining case.
Congress president Shantaram Naik, meanwhile, also questioned the timing of the raid, claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition government was trying to use the police machinery to "harass Congress MLAs and force them to join the ruling BJP-led coalition".
Explaining in further detail the reasons for delay in registering the FIR against Kavelkar, Superintendent of Police (ACB) Bosco George said that reading Malayalam was not his personnel's forte and finding an authorised translator was not easy either.
