A holiday court has remanded Gajanan Patil, who had claimed to be revenue minister Eknath Khadse’s personal aide, to two-day police custody, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials said.
A holiday court has remanded Gajanan Patil, who had claimed to be revenue minister Eknath Khadse’s personal aide, to two-day police custody, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials said.
He was arrested on charges of corruption on Friday after ACB officials acted on the complaint of Dr Ramesh Jadhav, a Mumbai-based economist and former director of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management. Dr Jadhav had approached Mr Khadse’s office to review a government order passed in 2014 for allotment of revenue land in Kalyan. While the government had allegedly shown interest and received a payment of over Rs 70 lakh from Dr Jadhav, an order was passed allotting the land to the state transport department. Eventually the government returned the amount, but Dr Jadhav challenged the allotment decision.
In his complaint to the ACB, Dr Jadhav alleged that when he went to visit Mr Khadse in his office, he was approached by Patil. He stated that Patil initially demanded a bribe of Rs 1 crore and a flat to settle the issue. Later, his demands escalated and he eventually demanded Rs 30 crore from Dr Jadhav, which caused him to approach the ACB.
ACB officials caught Patil while he was accepting the bribe outside Mantralaya. “A social and educational institution called International Society for Excellence had bought 37 hectares in Nilje in 2004. Dr Jadhav, the trustee of this organisation was in touch with Patil to obtain an NOC in this regard as the papers of the deal had been burnt in the fire at Mantralaya,” a home department official said.
The ACB on Monday will seek the court’s permission to conduct searches on Patil’s properties.
Mr Khadse issued a statement late on Friday night claiming that Patil was not his employee.
He said Patil was just a worker from his constituency of Muktainagar in Jalgaon who would get people from the village to Mumbai for medical treatment. “He was not employed officially or in private capacity with the minister’s office in any manner. If someone has misused my name and found guilty, strict action must be taken against him,” the statement said.
