CBI court discharges IRB officials from land-grab case

Pune: The Pune Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday discharged Virendra D. Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director of IRB Infrastructure Devel-opers, and a former firm director Deepak Gadgil, in an alleged land-grabbing case registered by the CBI.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case in December 2017. IRB  Developers had earlier filed an application for discharge on the ground that the chargesheet filed against Mr Mhaiskar and another person was devoid of substance and had no grounds for framing of charges.

CBI Judge A.K. Patil on considering the entire chargesheet, passed an order in which it was observed that no case is made out even to frame the charges under any of the sections alleged by CBI. Hence, the court ordered the discharged.  

Satish Shetty, RTI activist from Pune, in October 2009 had lodged FIR in Pune Rural Police against 13 people including Mr Mhaiskar and Mr Gadgil and police officials for allegedly grabbing 1,800 hectares of government land by forging documents.

On January 13, 2010, Shetty was brutally murdered near his house. His brother Sandip Shetty then lodged an FIR in which he had mentioned that his brother had been trying to find details of a land scam by IRB Developers.

Speaking about the order, Sandip Shetty said, “I am going to meet the CBI to learn whether it is going to the high court against this order and ask for a review... Otherwise, I will file a petition in the high court myself as a complainant.