Senior NCP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Chhagan Bhujbal has been charged with misrepresentation of facts, forgery, and misusing his official position when he was PWD Minister.
According to a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate, Mr Bhujbal hatched a criminal conspiracy to cheat and cause financial loss to the state and ensure undue gain to the developer in construction of the Regional Transport Office (RTO) building in Andheri.
The ED says by resorting to misrepresentation of facts and forgery, the project was fraudulently awarded to the developer, KS Chamankar Enterprises, by taking bribes and other pecuniary benefits by Mr Bhujbal, who misused his official position as PWD Minister. In the process, the State has suffered an undue loss of Rs 840.16 crore.
Those connected to the project are Chamankar, its partners, the Chamankar family, Prime Builders & Developers and its partners.
The charge sheet says Mr Bhujbal’s nephew Sameer Bhujbal and his son Pankaj Bhujbal, along with other accused, hatched a criminal conspiracy to cheat the general public and collect funds to the tune of Rs 67.59 crore in the guise of a real estate housing project at Rohinjan Village at Navi Mumbai. They have misrepresented that the land required for the project was in their ownership and possession, and that the statutory clearances were obtained and architectural and building plans were approved.
The ED says the total fund received by Chamankar Enterprises was Rs 280.63 crore. As per the agreement with the State, Chamankar Enterprises was required to utilise Rs 100 crore towards the construction related to State works, including the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi.
The balance amount of Rs 180.63 crore was channelled into the accounts of their family concerns and family members laundered towards acquisition of properties. Thus, these illicit funds acquired by Chamankar are proceeds of crime and have been laundered by them, says the charge sheet.
The ED says the proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 197.37 crore generated by Prime Builders and Developers were channelled into the accounts of its various group companies and invested in business.
The proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 291.71 crore generated by Mr Bhujbal through the said criminal activity was channelled and integrated into the business activities of the companies controlled by the Bhujbal group managed by Sameer and Pankaj Bhujbal and Sunil Naik and others. The charge sheet says Rs 80.88 crore was provided to various companies such as Micro Technologies (India) Ltd, Kumaon Engineering Company Ltd, Seagreen Realtors Pvt Ltd and Spanco Ltd, and channelled back into the companies of the Bhujbal group.
Funds to the tune of Rs 63.25 crore were sourced in the guise of sham transactions from corporate groups such as DB Realty, Balwa Group, Sanjay Kakade Group and Universal Development Corporation, and channelled into the Bhujbal group companies such as Parvesh Construction Pvt Ltd, Armstrong Energy Pvt Ltd, Anandvan Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, and Bavesh Builders Pvt Ltd.
The ED says the further proceeds of crime generated to the tune of Rs 122.36 crore were channelled in cash to four operators in the market — Suresh Jijodia, Praveen Jain, Sanjiv Jain and Chandrashekhar Sarda — who were controlling a number of bogus/dubious companies, whose only function was to provide services of channelling such proceeds against commission.
