Alleged Goan Gambling Matka Kingpin Who Compared “Didi” To Goddess Durga Joins TMC

PANAJI: Former Tivim MLA Kiran Kandolkar, who is rumored to be the kingpin of the gambling and matka business in North Goa and allegedly controls all gambling rackets in the Bardez taluka, today joined the All India Trinamool Congress party, along with his wife and several supporters.

Kandolkar was welcomed in the TMC by party MP Mahua Moitra and TMC national vice president Luizinho Faleiro at an induction function in Panaji.

A few weeks earlier, Kandolkar raised eyebrows and angered Goans, when he compared WB CM Mamata Banerjee to Goddess Durga, prompting Goa CM Dr Pramod Sawant to intervene and condemn the statements and comparison made by Kandolkar.

In October last year, the Goa Crime Branch had raided an apartment at Khorlim near Mapusa city, owned by Kandolkar and seized gambling props, charts and Rs 50,000 in cash. Three persons were arrested by the Goa Police in the case. Kandolkar denied any role in the gambling racket, claiming he had rented the flat and did not know what was going on inside. He was summoned by the Crime Branch twice for questioning in the matter, but denied any knowledge of the illegal activity in his flat.

Coincidentally, Kandolkar’s residence where he lives with his family is a few meters away from the flat where the gambling activity was going on.

Kandolkar who started off about 20 years ago as a taxi driver, ran a motor garage at Morod near Mapusa, before getting into the matka business. Today, he is rumored to own several benami properties, including commercial premises, shops and flats in North Goa, which are proceeds of his clandestine and illegal gambling business.

A few years earlier, on the directions of the Bombay High Court at Goa, the Goa Crime Branch had registered a first information report (FIR) against a politician by the name of Kiran from Tivim, an unidentified minister, other politicians, police officers, matka operators, 1,100 bookies and two newspapers in the alleged matka gambling case. Kandolkar was questioned by the cops but managed to wriggle out of the matter.

According to crime statistics, from 2014 to 2016, (up to March 31, 2016 when Kandolkar was allegedly very active in the business) the Goa crime branch booked 217 matka cases, arrested 250 persons and seized Rs 3.2 lakh. The North Goa police booked 676 matka cases, seized 6.8 lakh and arrested 704 persons. In South Goa, 1,054 matka cases were registered, 1,106 persons arrested and Rs 7.7 lakh seized. Kandolkar has time and again denied his involvement in any illegal activity, alleging that the cases against him are due to political vendetta.

Meanwhile, speaking to media persons on Saturday, after his induction, Kandolkar said only the Mamata Banerjee-led party is capable of defeating the BJP in the next year’s polls.

“Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal can’t defeat Narendra Modi. But Mamata Banerjee has shown in West Bengal that she can fight back and hand the BJP a drubbing,” he stated. He also blasted the Congress and the BJP, terming both the national parties as being hand-in-glove with each other.
Read More Here