The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday filed a 17,400-page chargesheet against former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal and six others in a case where he is charged with accepting
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday filed a 17,400-page chargesheet against former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal and six others in a case where he is charged with accepting kickbacks in awarding contract of central library of Mumbai University at Kalina Campus in suburban Mumbai.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Bhujbal is already in judicial custody, as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested him in connection with a money laundering case. The ED had arrested him on March 14 in connection with the scam involving the construction of Maharashtra Sadan. The ED is expected to produce him before the court on March 31, when his judicial custody is getting over.
According to ACB sources, the chargesheet comprises of documentary evidence against Bhujbal and six others, including officials from the state public works department. All these people have been charged for criminal conspiracy, corruption, cheating and forgery under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code.
According to ACB, the case involves a prime plot at suburban Kalina belonging to Mumbai University, which granted a four-acre plot to the state to construct a library.
The ACB case against Bhujbal and the other accused is that they caused huge losses to the state government by leasing out a plot to a private developer at a very low rate, for which the accused persons allegedly received huge kickbacks.
The PWD, under Bhujbal, allegedly issued tenders to construct the library in 2009 on one portion of the plot, and allegedly leased out the remaining land to a well-known developer for 99 years, at Rs 1 per square metre, which the ACB said is illegal. The revenue department was kept in the dark about this deal and the collector was not informed, the ACB has alleged.
The Maharashtra ACB had earlier filed two FIRs against the Bhujbals and others under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to probe the Maharashtra Sadan scam and the Kalina land grabbing case. The probe against Bhujbal began after the Bombay high court, while hearing a PIL by Aam Aadmi Party, constituted a special investigation team comprising ACB and ED to look into the allegations.
This is the second chargesheet filed by ACB against Bhujbal this year. The first chargesheet was filed in February against Bhujbal and 16 others in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan scam.
