A special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court on Wednesday granted bail to former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan sca
A special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court on Wednesday granted bail to former deputy chief minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal and his nephew Sameer in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan scam case. The relief does not mean that the duo would come out of jail because they have not been granted bail in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case for which they have been put behind bars.
The court also granted time, as a last chance, to senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader’s son Pankaj Bhujbal to appear before the court on next date of hearing July 22. Though special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat requested the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against Pankaj because even on the last date of hearing, his lawyer had assured the court that Pankaj would appear before the court on next date of hearing. However, on the lawyer’s request, the court allowed his exemption application and granted him one more chance to appear before the court.
The special ACB court had on June 15 issued a production warrant against Chhagan and Sameer Bhujbal. Since both of them are already in judicial custody for their alleged role in money laundering case, the Arthur Road jail authorities produced them before the court. The judge then granted them bail for a surety of Rs 50,000 each.
The ACB, in February this year, had chargesheeted 17 persons including the Bhujbals in connection with the case. It had filed a 20,000-page chargesheet consisting of statements of over 60 witnesses.
According to the prosecution, the case was entirely based on documentary evidence, such as fund transfer and bank transactions. In the construction of Maharashtra Sadan, contractors have earned 80 per cent profits, while as per the government circular such contractors are entitled to only 20 per cent gains. The ACB claimed that the account books were fudged to show that the profits earned was only one per cent.
In June last year, the ACB had registered two FIRs against Chhagan Bhujbal. The first one was related to alleged irregularities in allotment of a prime plot at Kalina in Mumbai to a developer while the case was for alleged rampant corruption and large-scale irregularities in the construction of the new Maharashtra Sadan, the Maharashtra government’s guest house in New Delhi.
