Ravindra Waikar refutes charge, warns of legal notice

A day after this newspaper reported the raft of allegations made by Mumbai Congress chief, Sanjay Nirupam, against Shiv Sena leader and minister of state for housing, Ravindra Waikar, the latter has denied any wrongdoing and warned that he will file legal notice against Mr Nirupam for baseless allegations. “I will resign if any allegations against me are proved to be true or Mr Nirupam should resign for bogus allegations,” Mr Waikar said on Wednesday.

Mr Nirupam last week alleged that Mr Waikar was responsible for illegal construction of a gymnasium at Aarey Colony in Goregaon and demanded Mr Waikar’s resignation. He also alleged that the Sena leader had illegally obtained permissions from Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) for construction of nearly 3.5 lakh square feet saleable area costing nearly Rs 1,000 crore and was directly involved in six projects at Jogeshwari and Andheri where SRA officials had bent rules for his firms to obtain necessary permissions.

Refuting all charges, Mr Waikar on Wednesday claimed, “I have all the permissions for construction of gymnasium at Aarey Colony, and there is no height restriction for the construction. I will ask both the Aarey CEO and Mhada to verify how the structure is illegal when I have all permissions.”

Mr Nirupam had also claimed that the gym constructed by Mr Waikar on MLA funds was managed by a trust that was illegal and Mr Waikar’s family members were its members. Mr Waikar responded saying, “Nirupam should know that it is not wrong to have family members in the trust. Nowhere is there a rule that if the construction is on MLA funds, one cannot have family members on the board for trust membership.”

On allegations of owning realty firms and misusing his position to obtain permissions for SRA projects, Mr Waikar said, “I do not have any stakes in any firm as of now.”