AAP claims Sena MoS siphoned Rs 500 crore by selling APMC shops

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Preeti Menon on Wednesday claimed to have exposed Shiv Sena Minister of State (MoS) Arjun Khotkar’s involvement in siphoning off nearly Rs 500 crore by selling shops at Jalna Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC).

Mr Khotkar has been the chairman of Jalna APMC for the past nine years, and Ms Menon alleged that he had sold shops at market prices while showing minimum prices in APMC records.

Ms Menon was addressing the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh.

AAP sting AAP workers spoke to merchants about purchase of APMC shops and the latter said that the going rate was Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh however they had been told that if they paid anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh to the APMC chairman, they would be able to buy the shops at a much cheaper rate.

Rs 500-crore scam Ms Menon said the sting op revealed 1,500 shops in APMC had been sold. However, while the real value of these shops was about Rs 600 crore, APMC got only Rs 75 crore with the balance Rs 525 crore usurped by Mr Khotkar and his cronies. One of the merchants revealed shops were being constructed illegally in the space reserved for parking and that Mr Khotkar was earning anywhere between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh daily by allowing traders not to pay proper fees to APMC and instead getting them to pay him half the amount in cash.

‘Losses all through’ Under Mr Khotkar’s chairmanship, Jalna APMC has become a loss-making enterprise with losses for the financial year 2014-15 pegged at Rs 16,343,589.49, accordign to an audit report by the district’s deputy registrar.

Ms Menon said contractor Ajit Chhabra did many construction jobs for APMC by virtue of being a close friend of Mr Khotkar. Similarly, APMC financial consultant Nitin Chechani made excessive payments with no clear works to show, she said.

‘Sack Mr Khotkar’ Ms Menon claimed most APMC shop owners were relatives of Mr Khotkar and that Mr Khotkar should be sacked from the Cabinet and from his post as APMC chairman. She said she would approach the CM, governor and chief justice against him.

Khotkar rubbishes allegations “All shops are sold through auction and APMC advertises in all leading newspapers,” is what Mr Khotkar had to say to all of Ms Menon’s allegations. He the AAP leader was playing politics.