Charging Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Ratnakar Gaikwad with forgery and fraud, Shiv Sena MLA Neelam Gorhe along with the chairman of the People’s Improvement Trust (PIT), V.S. Asware, on Thursday met Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, demanding his removal.
Mr. Gaikwad is at the centre of a controversy over the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan at Dadar and its proposed redevelopment into a multi-storey high rise proposed by PIT. The senior IAS official claims to be the chief advisor of PIT and has been named in two FIRs filed earlier. Ms. Gorhe was accompanied by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s grandson and Repubican Sena leader Anandraj Ambedkar and Dalit writer Arjun Dangle.
The three-page memorandum signed by Prof. Asware said PIT had seven trustees, including him. He said one of the trustees, advocate Shrikant Gaware, in collusion with some unscrupulous persons, including Mr. Gaikwad, who falsely claim to be the trustees, had forged the record of the trust and misrepresented it before the municipal, State and other public authorities with the sole intention to grab the property of the trust and to control it. The memorandum alleged that Mr. Gaikwad fraudulently became a trustee, and after realising the legal consequences, resigned. The change reports pertaining to his induction and resignation have been filed by Mr. Gaware in the Charity Commissioner’s Office and are pending for inquiry.
It also alleged that Mr. Gaikwad managed to become the chief advisor of the trust and by forging the record, he has inducted his brother-in-law Vijay Ranpise as a trustee. “Mr. Gaikwad fraudulently obtained the Intention to Develop (IOD) notice dated April 13, 2016, under section 354 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1988, pertaining to the demolition of Ambedkar Bhavan,” the memorandum said. The Bhavan, which has been the hub of Ambedkarite movements over several decades, was classified as dilapidated under section 354 by the civic body, and the IOD is the requisite certificate required for redevelopment of a property.
