In an acute embarrassment for the Sharad Pawar-led NCP ahead of its two-day National Convention to be held in Patna, the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday registered an FIR against one of its senior-most leaders and former Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and five others, in the new Maharashtra Sadan construction scam.
Apart from Bhujbal, the FIR named Gajanan Sawant, the then sub-divisional engineer, Harish Patil, then executive engineer, Anil Kumar Gaikwad, then superintendent engineer with the PWD and Sanjay Solanki and MH Shah, who were at the time secretaries with PWD, as the accused in the scam.
Bhujbal and five others have been booked under section 13 (1) (c) (d) (criminal misconduct by a public servant and fraudulently misappropriating for personal use any property entrusted to him) along with sections 420 (cheating), 465, 468, 471, 474 (using forgery for purpose of cheating) 477 a (falsification of accounts), 120 criminal conspiracy), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The scam relates to the allegations that the Bhujbal family-run trust had received kickbacks from private contractors hired for the construction of New Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi.
In its directive given on December 18, 2014, the HC division bench headed by chief Justice Mohit Shah — hearing a petition filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — had ordered the setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officials from both the ACB and ED to investigate the allegations that the Bhujbal family-run trust had received kickbacks from private contractors. The HC had asked the two agencies to file their reports within two months.
The petition had alleged that contractor had made payments to two companies, namely, Origin Infrastructure Pvt ltd and Ideen Furniture, which were controlled by Bhujbal and his relatives.