ACB chargesheet against Chhagan Bhujbal, son in the Maharashtra Sadan case

MUMBAI: The anti-corruption bureau ( ACB) on Wednesday submitted a chargesheet against former PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan case, accusing him of misconduct, misuse of his official position, cheating and criminal conspiracy, among others.

Also named in the chargesheet that runs into 24,500 pages are Bhujbal’s son Pankaj, nephew Sameer and 14 others, including government officials and developers, for misappropriating funds in the construction of the state guest house in Delhi. All of them have been charged under IPC sections for forgery, cheating, breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act. If convicted, the result could mean jail terms of up to seven years.

Bhujbal declined comment, saying he was yet to read the documents. “Certainly I will comment on the chargesheet after consulting my lawyers and after reading the entire document,” he told TOI. So far, Bhujbal has taken the view that it would be wrong to blame him since all the decisions were taken by a cabinet sub-committee headed by the then CM.

The allegations against the Bhujbals concern a contract the senior NCP leader gave a firm, K S Chamankar Enterprises, in 2005 without inviting tenders, when he was the PWD minister. The builder got the development rights of a slum on RTO land in Andheri, with the condition that Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi, the RTO building in Andheri and a guest house on Malabar Hill be constructed in return. The firm is said to have entered into an agreement with another company for the work and afterwards sold the development rights of the RTO land to a construction company. The Bhujbals are also accused of receiving kickbacks.

Others who have been named as accused are former PWD officials Arun Devdhar, Maniklal Shah, Devdutt Marathe and Deepak Deshpande, other government officials Bipin Sankhe and Anilkumar Gaikwad, developers and architect Pravina Chamankar, Krishna Chamankar, Praneeta Chamankar and Prasanna Chamankar, and Tanveer Shaikh, Iram Shaikh, Geeta Joshi and Sanjay Joshi, employees of the Bhujbalowned Mumbai Educational Trust and their spouses who were directors in firms promoted by the Bhujbals.

The screws have been turning on the Bhujbals since CM Devendra Fadnavis gave the ACB the goahead to probe them.