|
ACB questions civic engineer in corruption case
Another member of the High Rise Building Committee was questioned by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the bribery case involving arrested structural engineer Sailesh Mahimtura.
Sources in the ACB said Chandrakant Choudhary, an assistant engineer with the municipal corporation, was summoned for questioning at the ACB headquarters at Parel on Friday.
Choudhary had allegedly asked a Matunga-based developer, who is the complainant in this case, to speak to Mahimtura to obtain a No-Objection Certificate for his project from the High Rise Committee.
Choudhary, who is also a member of the committee, had allegedly visited the project site on April 23 with three other members. “We would like to know whether Mahimtura and Choudhary were collaborating in fleecing those who applied for NOCs. Action will follow if Choudhary is found to be involved,” an ACB officer said.
On May 17, the ACB nabbed two of Mahimtura’s agents while accepting a bribe of Rs 15 lakh. They led the ACB to Mahimutra. The ACB is interrogating Mahimutra to establish the chain of events. Police have recorded the statement of Mahimtura’s agent, Jhambin Jumatiya. “We may also unearth links of other members of the committee to this business,” said an ACB officer requesting anonymity.
Deputy Inspector General, ACB, Niket Kaushik said complaints lying with the Urban Development department, which appoints the High Rise Committee, will also be probed.
The ACB on Friday told the special anti-corruption court that Jumatiya had told them he had only sent two text messages to the developer’s cell phone from Mahimtura’s phone and refused to reveal who had sent the other messages. Public Prosecutor R.V. Kini said Mahimtura had initially said he did not know who had sent the messages. Kini said efforts were on to find who had sent the rest of the messages from Mahimtura’s cell.
|