| Slum scandal: 7 in police custody
The seven people arrested on Thursday by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with a Rs3 crore scam involving a Kandivali slum rehabilitation project, were on Friday remanded in police custody until September 20.The perpetrators, Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials were picked up on Thursday following raids at 18 places across Mumbai and Thane. The raids yielded unaccounted for cash and incriminating documents. Those arrested include Subhash Chawda, Netaji Shinde, Subhash Parulekar, Sudin Achrekar, Jayant Joshi, Suresh Gunjal and Sanjay Joshi. Six others, including BMC official Narendra Barde, haven’t been arrested yet. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and using public office for personal gains, and were booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. A probe into the irregularities began after Arun Pathak had filed an application against the accused at a special ACB court. The court in turn directed the investigating agency to look into the matter. According to Pathak, the developers, architects and committee members of the Sai Siddhi Vinayak Co-operative Housing Society, as well as some BMC officials hatched the conspiracy, using forged documents (banks and otherwise), aimed at deriving personal benefits. Investigations showed that the accused referred to fictitious structures in the survey of the slum areas. It also revealed that 95 “non-existent” tenants were staying on the controversial plot. “The SRA scheme was sanctioned with concerned officials not choosing to verify or scrutinize the veracity of relevant documents. This helped the conspiracy, which involved private individuals and some public servants,” Vilas Tupe, senior ACB officer told DNA. The project was pushed through secretly on the basis of false and fabricated residential documents. “Non-eligible” slum dwellers were enlisted and shown as bona fide tenants. “Forged thumb impressions of slum dwellers too were acquired on the sammati patra (letter of consent),” Tupe added. Defence lawyer Naveen Chomal who appeared for Subhash Parulekar (a BMC rent collector) said, “Charges of criminal conspiracy against my client don’t hold much water. His arrest is an eye-wash aimed at shielding other corrupt officers.”
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