ACB to file chargesheet against Chhagan Bhujbal in 2018

Mumbai: Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials will file a chargesheet in the case related to incarcerated Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal’s disproportionate assets next year. It will take two more months to make a valuation of Bhujbal’s properties, officials said.

The delay is due to the slow pace of work on the part of public work department (PWD) officials, who are doing the valuation. The FIR was filed by the ACB in May 2016, in which Bhujbal, his wife and family members are accused of allegedly amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 203 crore.

Every time ACB officials had given different reasons, six months back they said that they do not have in-house experts to value his 25-odd assets, for which it has to depend on non-agency professionals. Now they are saying that they have given some properties evaluation assessment to a PWD department and they are taking time for the evaluation of some of the properties.  

Some senior officials from the ACB said on condition of anonymity, “Our officials are not taking the case seriously. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had done the evaluation in two months. Why can’t the ACB team do it? It has changed the valuation team two to three times and therefore it needs more time to do the same work.” ACB sources said the agency is struggling in its probe due to the lack of adequate manpower.

In a separate PMLA probe, the ED had arrested Bhujbal in March last year on allegations that he had laundered Rs 800 crore that was unaccounted for.

The ACB has not stated the exact worth of the alleged assets amassed by Bhujbal but has put under its scanner 25-odd properties own him or his family members.