Goa AAP chief Amit Palekar arrested

Panaji: The Goa Crime Branch on Thursday arrested state Aam Aadmi Party president Amit Palekar for allegedly misrepresenting facts in connection with an accident wherein a Mercedes car mowed down three people near Panaji earlier this month, an official said.

Palekar has been accused of misrepresenting facts by introducing a wrong person as the car driver before the investigation officer in an attempt to save the main accused, who was at the wheels at the time of the accident, a senior police official told media.

The AAP leader, however, said he has nothing to do with the crime and claimed the action against him was part of a “dirty politics”.

Palekar was arrested under Indian Penal Code section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), the police official said.

Earlier, businessman Paresh Sawardekar, who owns a chain of supermarkets and a real estate firm, was arrested after the Mercedes car he was allegedly driving in an inebriated condition on August 7 hit five vehicles in Banastarim village near Panaji, killing three persons, police had said.

The accident, in which three cars, a motorcycle and a scooter were hit, took place on the Ponda-Panaji national highway, some 15 kilometres from the state capital, he said.

On Thursday morning, the police took the AAP Goa chief into custody from his office in Panaji, the official said.

Talking to reporters while he was being taken away by police, Palekar claimed he was arrested as part of a “dirty politics”.

He also claimed that he was offered to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a couple of days back, but he refused.

“I was told that ‘we will teach you a lesson if you don’t concede our request’,” Palekar said without naming anyone.