Mumbai: The main complainant instrumental in exposing alleged cases of corruption against IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar has asked Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to scrap the informal inquiry committee set up by the State government and instead file an FIR against the ousted officer by setting up a Statutory Inquiry Commission.
Mr. Mopalwar was removed as managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, after a report in The Hindu exposed how a number of agencies had been investigating corruption allegations against him.
On August 29, the State General Administration Department issued a Government Resolution (GR) announcing a three-member committee headed by former bureaucrat Johny Joseph to investigate the allegations.
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In a letter to Mr. Fadnavis on September 14, Satish Mangle, the complainant, said the prescribed procedure to investigate such allegations has been breached. “The committee has no power to summon witnesses, accused persons, carry out raids, arrests, forensic examination of seized materials, or acquire bank account and income tax return details. In other words, the committee is powerless,” he said.
Statutory agency probe
He also argued that as per Central Vigilance Commission guidelines, allegations against a public servant and his associate private people should be probed by statutory agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation, the police department or the State Anti-Corruption Bureau. A committee set up through a GR can never do justice to the case, Mr. Mangle said.
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He said there is overwhelming evidence of corruption practised by public servants with the assistance of private persons.
Conflict with SC ruling
Not registering an FIR and instead setting up an informal inquiry committee is directly in conflict with the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Lalitha Kumari, which stipulated that an FIR ought to be registered when there is information that a cognisable offence has been committed, he said.
The letter refers to the investigation into the Adarsh scam, where in addition to the filing an FIR, a simultaneous inquiry was ordered under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.