MUMBAI: Social activist Anjali Damania has written to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, seeking the suspension of the order of a PMLA court that has discharged NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his son and nephew in a money laundering case.
The case relates to a 2005-2006 deal that the NCP leader, when he was state PWD minister, allegedly awarded to a firm for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi. There were allegations of kickbacks in other projects as well, in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Bhujbal had served jail time in various cases relating to money laundering.
Addressing the media on Saturday, Damania pointed out that the case arose out of First Information Reports (FIRs) filed following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) she had filed in 2014. Damania, who has virtually campaigned against Bhujbal for over a decade, also said that discharge should not be equated with acquittal. She reminded the media that several discharge orders are being challenged or are under revision, which keeps the criminality alive.
She said the PIL was the genesis of the criminal prosecution and, on December 18, 2014, the court had appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising the director-general, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Mumbai, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to inquire into the allegations and submit a report.
The PIL claimed that the Maharashtra Sadan project had been fraudulently allotted, without tenders and by fabrication of records. It also mentioned the acceptance of kickbacks through benami companies in the names of Bhujbal’s relatives.
Damania had levelled charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy in the Central Library project at the Mumbai University in Kalina, executed by the state PWD; large-scale cheating of the public in the Hexworld Housing Project in Navi Mumbai; laundering of the proceeds of crime through real estate entities and shell companies.
After the PIL was taken up by the court, two FIRs were registered by the state ACB and one by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Navi Mumbai police. The trial relating to alleged kickbacks of ₹2.5 crore in the construction of the Central Library at Kalina is still pending.
These FIRs collectively constitute the predicate or scheduled offences for proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Damania said. The special court had discharged Bhujbal on grounds that the predicate offences had ceased to exist. Damania wondered how this was possible as the FIR in the Central Library case is pending, with the accused still facing trial.
She said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) itself has recorded that further prosecution under PMLA would follow upon completion of investigation in this FIR. She added that discharge in one FIR does not extinguish other scheduled offences arising out of the same PIL. Each FIR is independent and survives on its own footing.
Damania said the proceeds of crime identified and attached in the present matter have neither been restituted nor extinguished, and therefore the offence continues in the eyes of the law.
Dismissing Damania’s charges, Bhujbal told Hindustan Times, “People have been using Maharashtra Sadan and the RTO office (in Andheri) for years. Not a single paisa was paid to the contractor. Where is the corruption?” He said the project in Navi Mumbai could not be completed as it was repeatedly attached by the authorities.