Chargesheet filed against Bhujbals in Sadan case

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday filed a 24,500-page chargesheet in the sessions court against former public works department (PWD) minister and NCP strongman Chhagan Bhujbal, his son MLA Pankaj, nephew former MP Sameer and 14 others for alleged irregularities in awarding the project for three constructions, including New Delhi’s New Maharashtra Sadan, a state guest house.

An ACB officer said that the investigation revealed that in the construction of ‘Maharashtra Sadan’ (the state guest house in Delhi), the contractor earned 80 per cent profit, while the rules allowed only 20 per cent margin. “The accounts were fudged to show that the profit earned was only one per cent,” he said.

Chamankar Enterprises, the contractor firm, transferred money to Niche Infrastructure and other companies in which Pankaj and Sameer were directors, he said.

“Most of the companies floated by the Bhujbals are in the name of their employees and used for siphoning off funds. Niche was earlier owned by employees of Maharashtra Educational Trust. The Bhujbals later became directors of MET,” the ACB officer said.

The original cost estimate for Maharashtra Sadan was Rs 13.5 crore, but later it was increased to Rs 50 crore. The Bhujbals got Rs 13.5 crore as kickbacks from the Chamankars, who earned a profit of about Rs 190 crore from Maharashtra Sadan and other PWD works, the officer said. “Most of the money was transferred to Niche by the Chamankars after getting the project; the money ultimately reached Sameer and Pankaj, he added.”

It is learnt that the chargesheet mentions valuations of a land on Link Road in Andheri, which was given by Bhujbal to Chamankar Enterprises for construction.

The PWD had done a valuation of this land and found it to be Rs 207 crore in 2006. However, in 2011 when a private firm carried out a valuation of the same land, it was estimated to be around Rs 4,000 crore. The ACB has said that the PWD led by Bhujbal as minister deliberately showed a lower value of the land to pocket a profit running into thousands of crores in connivance with the Chamankars. The FIR registered by them last June shows the money trail between Chamankar Enterprises and the private companies floated by the Bhujbal family members and employees of his trust. The money trail alleges that Chamankar gave bribes to the Bhujbals in lieu of favours.

The FIR states the roles of each of the accused and how Bhujbal received kickbacks. Part 16 of the chargesheet narrates the entire crime in about 120 pages. The rest of the pages give minute details of allegations levelled in these 120 pages. There are about 70 witnesses in the case including Vishaka (Pankaj’s wife) and Shefali (Sameer’s wife). The other accused in the case are identified as Arun Devdhar (then superintendent engineer in PWD), Devdatt Marathe and Deepak Deshpande (both then secretary in PWD), Bipin Sankhe (chief architect), members of the Chamankar family — Prasanna Chamankar (architect), builders Krishna Chamankar, Pranita Chamankar and Pravin Chamankar — Tanveer Shaikh (director of Niche infrastructure), Iram Shaikh, Sanjay Joshi and his wife Gita (all three directors of Origin Infrastructure), Manik Shah (then chief engineer) and Anilkumar Gaikwad (then executive engineer). Iram and Sanjay were employees of Bhujbal’s Mumbai education trust. The money from Origin and Niche was routed to firms floated by Sameer and Pankaj completing the chain of kickbacks.