Mumbai: Despite communications from as high up as the Prime Minister’s Office, and including Central ministries, the Income Tax Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation; the Maharashtra government has seemingly ignored requests and reminders to probe the allegations against Radheshyam Mopalwar, of having assets disproportionate to his known income, to the tune of several hundred crore.
Mr. Mopalwar, an IAS officer and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), is presently in charge of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ pet project of Mumbai-Nagpur super expressway.
On Tuesday, a day after unverified recordings of Mr. Mopalwar allegedly discussing large under-the-table cash transactions became public, Mr. Fadnavis assured the Assembly that a probe would happen within one month.
However, as letters and other material accessed by The Hindu show, the state government had been told of the allegations of corruption against Mr. Mopalwar since at least December 2016, and had asked for an inquiry in January this year.
In December, the PMO had sent an online complaint against Mr. Mopalwar to the General Administration Department — which is headed by the CM — through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System. No action was taken.
Then, Verghese Joseph, Deputy Director (Vigilance), at the Income Tax department’s headquarters in Delhi, sent a letter marked ‘confidential’ and dated February 3, 2017, addressed to the Director General (Investigations) of Income Tax. “I am directed to forward herewith copy of letter dated 25.01.2017 in respect of disproportionate assets and tax evasion by Shri Radheshyam Laxmanrao Mopalwar, VC and MD, MSRDC,” said the letter. The letter had a copy of a list of allegations against Mr. Mopalwar, and two CDs describing his alleged ‘ benami ’ properties and recordings of his telephonic conversations of a dubious nature. The Hindu is in possession of the CDs.
Less than two weeks later, on February 15, 2017, the superintendent of police of the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) sent a letter to the Director General, ACB, Maharashtra police. The letter said, “Please find enclosed herewith a complaint in original received from Shri Anil Anna Gote, MLA, Dhule, which is self explanatory” and asked the DG to take necessary action as the ‘suspect is an IAS officer of Maharashtra government.’ The Home department too is headed by the CM himself.
Less than a week later, on February 20, 2017, K.C. Raju, Under-Secretary of the Department of Personnel & Training, sent a letter to the Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, regarding a complaint of amassing disproportionate wealth worth ₹800 crore, filed by BJP MLA Anil Gote. The letter said, “The GoM is requested to kindly examine the matter and to furnish a factual report to this department immediately.”
On June 15, 2017, the Deputy Director of Income Tax (Vig.) (HQ) sent another letter to the Director General of Income Tax (Inv.), which said, ‘‘in case involvement of any officer or official is found, during the course of investigation of the above complaint, the same may kindly be intimated to this office at the earliest.’’ Apart from these allegations of corruption, documents available with The Hindu show that Maharashtra’s Home ministry, which is headed by the CM, in a letter dated January 9, 2017, had asked the Maharashtra DGP to take action against the officer. The letter refers to another complaint from Mr. Gote, where he had alleged that Mr. Mopalwar was involved in kidnapping, robbing and torturing one Satish Mangle. “CM has asked for urgent and appropriate Inquiry from crime branch,” said the letter. No action has been taken since.
Mr Mangle’s online complaint, which was filed with Centre’s Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, was also transferred to Bhagwan Sahai, Additional Chief Secretary (Maharashtra GAD) on June 7, 2017. The letter accompanying the transfer of the complaint said, “Citizens are advised to take up matter regarding pendency of their grievances directly with the state government concerned.” No action has been taken yet.
Mr. Gote confirmed to this newspaper that he had filed the complaints and that he continues to fight against corrupt officials. “If the officer is wrong, he must be punished,” he said. He wondered whether the bureaucracy is trying to help Mr. Mopalwar by not making inquiries into the charges against him.
Mr Mangle said that senior IAS officers have been aware about the matter for months, and have taken no action. “They should have informed CM about the cases,” he said.
When asked about the allegations, Mr. Mopalwar said, “Whatever inquiries are referred to are in the public domain, and are official records. I’ve no comments on that.”
The Hindu made repeated attempts to contact the CM’s office on the matter, but received no replies.
