Mumbai: A complaint has been filed against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Ajoy Mehta, before the Magistrate’s court, seeking his prosecution for allegedly shielding illegal construction by a developer at Prabhadevi. The complaint has been filed by activist Kamlakar Shenoy, accusing Mehta of misleading the BMC’s Building Proposal (BP) department.
According to Shenoy, the developer in question, had illegally converted the parking space of the building into commercial offices. Following this conversion, he did not obtain the occupation certificate and instead filed an application before the BP department seeking an increased Floor Space Index (FSI).
“The first and second floors of the said building were sanctioned to be parking lots. However, the developer converted the same into offices. He then sought an incentive FSI from the BMC,” claimed Shenoy in his complaint.
“In response to this plea, the BP department wrote to Mehta, asking him to obtain a legal opinion from a senior advocate and also sought clarification from Urban Development Department (UDD) to know, if the increased FSI can be given to the developer,” Shenoy said. However, Mehta did not obtain any legal opinion and instead asked the BP department to proceed with the plea of the developer.
“Mehta told the BP department that the UDD has already given the requisite clarification and that certain orders were passed by the court in this regard. He (Mehta) thus, claimed that no legal opinion was necessary and BP department was asked to proceed on deciding whether the increased FSI could be given,” Shenoy has claimed in his complaint.
Shenoy has further claimed that he had filed an application under the Right To Information (RTI) act seeking the ‘clarification’ of the UDD and also the orders of the court, which were referred by Mehta in his orders to the BP department.
“Even after three years of continuous litigation before the state information commissioner, the BMC has not placed any such order or clarification on record. Thus, Mehta has passed the impugned order by relying on fictitious documents, allowing the regularisation of the illegal offices constructed,” Shenoy said.
“It is the duty of the officers to verify every action they intend to initiate. The BMC chief was aware that both documents, which he had relied upon were not on record or termed fictitious. However, he proceeded to pass the orders, thus, I have sought his prosecution,” Shenoy added.
The complaint further highlights the fact that prior to this, Shenoy had filed a separate complaint before the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Mumbai Police in 2017. He has also claimed that despite the said complaint, no FIR has been registered by the police.
