Panaji, June 1 (IANS): A court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant against former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat for failing to appear in a case involving a multi-crore-rupee sewerage scam.

Kamat, who headed the Congress-led alliance government during 2007-2012, failed to appear before the North Goa District and Sessions Court on two previous occasions, despite summons being issued to him.

Kamat, along with former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao and other government officials, has been accused of allegedly accepting a $976,630 bribe in 2010 from officials of the US-based Louis Berger consultancy firm to secure implementation rights of a multi-billion-dollar water and sewerage project in the state worth Rs 1,031 crore funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Top officials linked to the JICA project as well as senior Louis Berger employees have been arrested along with Alemao.

Kamat has been charged with criminal conspiracy.

The FIR was first filed after Louis Berger headquarters in the US, discovered during its internal audit that bribes had been paid to elected representatives and government officials in Goa for securing contracts.