Maharashtra Sadan scam: State Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal discharged by Mumbai Court

In a relief to Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a Mumbai Court on Thursday discharged him in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case being probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau since 2015..The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge HS Sathbai in an application filed by Bhujbal stating that there was no evidence of irregularities or corruption on his part when he was Deputy Chief Minister and State Minister of the Public Works Department (PWD).The Court also cleared all charges against his son Pankaj, nephew Sameer and five others..The case was registered in 2015 against Bhujbal and 16 others on allegations that a developer firm had been favoured by Bhujbal when he was the PWD Minister for a project on land owned by the Regional Transport Office. The project was given to the developer against the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and an RTO building in Tardeo, Mumbai. The allegation was that the Bhujbal family members received kickbacks from the firm..Those linked to the firm had been discharged last month by the Special Judge in the previous month. The Court had held that “there were more than 100 communications on the issue between various departments and there was no prima facie material to show meeting of mind of all public servants as members of a conspiracy to prepare a report favourable to the developer.”.Senior Advocate Prasad Dhakephalkar, representing Bhujbal, argued that there was no monetary loss to the exchequer of the State. He argued that the allegations were false, based on wrong calculations, assumptions and presumptions made by the investigating agency. Despite the voluminous chargesheet which ran into over 10,000 pages filed in 2016, it did not contain sufficient evidence in order to proceed for trial, he added..The Court was informed that the decision to award contracts was taken by the CIC (Cabinet Infrastructure Committee) in a meeting headed by then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in the presence of many other Ministers and senior bureaucrats. It was argued that Bhujbal did not have a role to play in the selection of the developer or in selecting the quantum of benefits to be given to the developer. .Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Misra opposed the plea stating that a voluminous chargesheet was filed in the case which showed the involvement of the accused which caused losses to the government.