The Bazarpeth police in Kalyan have registered a cheating and corruption case against 18 people including five former municipal commissioners of Kalyan Dombivli Municipal corporation and other officials.
The police said the case registered against 18 people including Govind Rathod, Ramnath Sonawane, SS Bhise, E. Ravindhran and Govind Bodke the former municipal commissioner, Chandrakant Singh, Ravi Rao and Maruti Rathod the assistant director of town planning, Surendra Tengle, Dnyaneshwar Adke, Sukhdeo, Jadhav, Raghuvir Shelke, Sanjay Bhole, Bhagwat and Suhas Gupte the assistant town planner and developer Harakchand Jain and Anil Nirgude.
A case has been followed by former Independent corporator Arun Geedh, who has been following up on this matter for the past few years, dug out all information to help the injustice that happened with the Manik colony. Civil Judge Sonali Sashikant Raul passed the order on January 18 to file a case in this matter.
The Bazarpeth police have registered a case under section 420, 418, 415, 467, 448, 120 (B) and 34 of the Indian penal code and section 9 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The officials gave a go-ahead to construct the building with fraudulent documents and less FSI. After the residents gave a tough fight against the KDMC for over a decade, the court has ordered them to file a complaint against them.
The police said the complainant Arun Geedh, 60, is the former corporator of C-ward of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal corporation. He has been serving the citizens of Kalyan for the last 20 years. Beedh has a very good track record in serving the citizens. "He took many initiatives to expose the scam in the KDMC to save the tax payer money. "Among the accused five were municipal commissioners of KDMC from 2004 to 2021, three of them are assistant director town planning in KDMC, Around eight of them are assistant town planner and engineer from 2004 to 2021. Including the builder and architect," said a police officer.
The police during investigation found the developer had taken the project of Manek colony. The redevelopment of Manek Colony housing complex at CTS number 2240, 2249 A, 2249/1 to 2249/11, 2299, 2300 and 2306 was in the ward of complainant Arun the corporator. The redevelopment work was done from 2004 by Sevabhavi enterprises through its partner Rajendra Pathak and others including the power of attorney holder Harakchand Jain (owner of vikas builder). The said plot was around 4337 square meters and had around 137 tenants. "The complainant Arun claims that the residents and committee members of the colony were meeting him from time to time to complain and bring to notice the mismanagement be done in the redevelopment of the manek colony. Arun the corporator used to pursue information and take proper cognizine about the mismanagement and after gathering details he used to bring to notice of the KDMC commissioner, town planning officers and other employees by sending a written letter," he said in his statement to police.
Arun states by overlooking or ignoring the provision of the Development control rules of the KDMC. "The officers of the KDMC had helped the developer of the manek colony from time to time and supported in all circumstances," he added.
According to the Court order, the civic officials and the whole team of town planning and other departments related to the town planning authorities favored the builder (developer), violating all rules regulations and giving false assurance to the 137 residents about FSI. "The officials allowed the developer to conduct the construction without following any rules. They have shown the meetings that happened between them regarding the same were shown to be false after the court saw the minutes of the meeting. After Manik Colony residents received houses as per different FSI and came to know about the fraud, they ran pillar to post but no one listened to them. Former corporator Geefh supported the families and filed cases in court," said an official.
Sachin Gunjal, Deputy commissioner of police, Zone 3 (Kalyan) confirmed about the case being registered and said he was on leave and the charge is with Prashant Mohite, DCP, Zone 4 (Ulhasnagar).
"We have registered a case and are further investigating the matter. No arrest has been made yet in the case. As per the law we will sent notice to all the accused involved in the cheating and accordingly follow the investigation."
