A day after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) carried out searches on his 17 properties across Maharashtra in connection with the multi-thousand crore Public Works Department (PWD) scam, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday registered two Economic Case Information Reports (ECIRs) against former PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and others under the provisions of Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA).
While the first ECIR related to the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land allotment case, the second one was registered in connection with an FIR against the senior NCP leader involving a housing project in Navi Mumbai.
The ED’s move to register two ECIRs comes after the State ACB registered two FIRs last week in connection with the multi-thousand crore PWD scam and the Navi Mumbai police on Tuesday booked Bhujbal in an alleged scam involving a sum of `44 crore.
On Tuesday, senior BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who has for the past few years been campaigning against the irregularities allegedly committed by Bhujbal in his tenure as the State PWD minister, had met the ED officials in Mumbai and requested for detailed investigations. “The ED registered two ECIRs against the Bhujbals in IndiaBulls and Maharashtra Sadan scams. Further action to follow,” Somaiya said on Wednesday.
Bhujbal his son Pankaj and nephew Sameer have come under the State ACB’s scanner for the alleged irregularities in handing over the contracts to a developer close to Bhujbals, KS Chamankar for three projects that the PWD had handed to the latter while he was heading the ministry in the previous Democratic Front (DF) government.
The first of two ECIRs comes less than a week after the ACB registered an FIR against Bhjubal and 16 others in the scam relating to the construction of new Maharashtra Sadan construction in Delhi, an RTO building and a new state guest house building, both in Mumbai. last week, the ACB had also registered one more FIR against Bhujbal and others in connection with the allotment of a piece of land in Kalina to a builder for construction of a library and receipt of donation to Bhujbal Foundation from Indiabulls Power.
The ED’s second ECIR comes a day after the Taloja police in Navi Mumbai booked Bhujbal, his son Pankaj, and nephew Samir for alleged involvement in a housing project scam, in which a reality firm promoted by the Bhujbal family had collected 10 per cent of the flat’s total cost as booking amount in 2010 but started no work..
Bhujbals have been booked under various Sections relating to cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust and relevant provisions of Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act.
The scam in which they have been booked pertains to the alleged manner in which 2,300 people who had booked houses in the project ‘Hex World’ promoted by a realty company owned by the Bhujbal family at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, were taken for a ride.
In the PWD scam, Bhujbal has been accused of handing out undue benefits to the tune of `1,700 crore to the KS Chamankar Builders through transferable development rights (TDRs) worth thousands of crores to Chamankar, who was to construct three buildings including Maharashtra Sadan and RTO Building in Mumbai and hand them over free of cost to the government.
In December last year, the ACB set up an SIT to conduct an open inquiry into allegations of corruption and favouritism against Bhujbal in construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and two other government buildings in Mumbai built under Private Public Partnership.
This followed a formal sanction granted by the Maharashtra government and a directive given by a division bench of the Bombay High Court, which asked the SIT to probe the allegations of corruption and money laundering against Bhujbal, his family members and employees of his educational trust.
In its directive given on December 18, 2014, the HC division bench comprising Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice BA Colabawala ordered the to-be-appointed SIT to submit its report on or before February 28, on its investigations into the allegations that the Bhujbal family-run trust had received kickbacks to the tune of `82 crore from private contractors.