Upbraiding the State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for the delay in completing its investigations into allegations of corruption and money laundering made against former PWD minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal, the Bombay High Court on Thursday set a deadline of two months for the ACB to complete the probe and submit its final report to the court.
Hearing a PIl filed by the Aam Aadmi Party on 11 specific instances of kickbacks allegedly received by Bhujbal during his tenure as the PWD minister in the previous DF Government, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah set August 20, 2015 as deadline for the ACB to complete all the pending investigations into the specific allegations against the NCP leader.The HC bench, which had on December 18, 2014 set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising ACB and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe the 11 specific allegations against Bhujbal, directed the ACB to submit its interim probe report by July 20 and submit its final report a month later.
Earlier, the HC Bench, which had given the SIT two months’ time to complete the investigation, expressed its displeasure over the delay in completing the investigations and said: “You (ACB) had six months to probe the allegations. The petitioner had submitted sufficient material to start an enquiry. All that you (ACB) had to do was verify the material submitted by the petitioner,” the Bench told the ACB.
Giving details of the progress in the investigations into the allegations against Bhujbal, acting Advocate General Anil Singh informed the court that the ACB had registered two FIRs against NCP leader Bhujbal and his family members in the Maharashtra Sadan scam and Kalina land grabbing case.Singh also told the court that another case had been registered by the Navi Mumbai Police concerning 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.
In addition, the Enforcement Directorate had on Wednesday registered two Economic Case Information Reports (ECIRs) in connection with the same allegations against former PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and others under the provisions of Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA), Singh told the court.
Singh informed the HC Bench that the 11 allegations submitted by the petitioner have been brought down to nine by the ACB. “FIRs in three allegations have been filed. The investigations into the remaining six allegations are on. A lot of material has been found during the probe involving money transactions from Singapore, which includes companies across the country. The ACB is sincerely investigating the case,” the acting Advocate General said.
The Counsel for the petitioners Advocate Anturkar argued that the Supreme Court had given clear directions that in any complaint the preliminary investigation should not take more than seven days (lalita Kumari vs State of Uttar Pradesh) and that the FIR must be filed at the earliest. Yet the ACB dragged its feet and had the court not directed the enquiry, even the current progress would not have happened.
Apart from setting August 20, 2015 as deadline for completing the entire investigations into all the specific allegations against the former PWD ministers, the HC Bench directed the ED to expedite its probe into the allegations of money laundering against Bhujbal, his son Pankaj and nephew Sameer. It asked the ED to start its enquiries as and when the FIRs were filed.
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.