Mumbai: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Monday filed its reply on discharge application filed by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal saying that prima facie there is evidence that all the accused had intentionally facilitated the offence and the accused are co-conspirators for wrongful gains. Bhujbal had last month filed a discharge application in the Maharashtra Sadan scam case.
Special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat confirmed the development and said, “Yes, we have filed the reply opposing discharge saying there are prima facie evidence against all the accused to show their involvement in the crime.”
Bhujbal’s discharge application states that all procedures was duly followed and there was no irregularity in the procedure for allotment of contract for Maharashtra Sadan.
The ACB on Monday filed its reply on the application saying the procedure to award the contract was not followed. It further stated that the contract price was inflated so that K.S. Chamankar would get more money. According to prosecution this would in turn was beneficial for Bhujbal because he allegedly received kickbacks from Chamankar.
The ACB claimed that the department concerned had connived with Bhujbal and manipulated the feasibility report for Maharashtra Sadan.
The prosecution’s case is that to construct Maharashtra Sadan, contractors Chamankar Associates had allegedly transferred money to Niche Infrastructure and other companies in which Pankaj and Sameer were the directors. The chargesheet said that most of the companies floated by Bhujbals are in the name of employees and used for siphoning off funds. Niche was earlier owned by some employees of the Maharashtra Educational Trust of which Bhujbal later became director.
