Maharashtra Sadan Scam: Discharge of Chhagan Bhujbal challenged before Bombay High Court

The recent discharge of Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Chhagan Bhujbal in the Maharashtra Sadan scam being probed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau, has been challenged before the Bombay High Court by a Mumbai-based activist. .Anjali Damania, an anti-corruption activist, has approached the High Court with a revision application on Wednesday challenging the order of Additional Sessions Judge HS Sathbai. Judge Sathbai had ruled that there was no evidence of irregularities or corruption against Bhujbal when he was Deputy Chief Minister and State Minister of the Public Works Department (PWD).Damania in her plea stated that she had been compelled to approach the High Court since the State government had failed to take any action against the Cabinet Minister, who was a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which is part of the coalition government in the State..Damania stated in her application that the investigation into the scam was of grave public interest as it purportedly involved huge corruption involving public money. She claimed that even the High Court had raised concerns over the extent of corruption in the case and hence appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for supervising the investigation being conducted by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau, in the public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the year 2014 by Damania herself.She submitted in her application that Bhujbal had misused his position as a Cabinet Minister and hatched a criminal conspiracy with the other accused to cause wrongful loss to the public exchequer. She claimed that a private builder had been appointed for carrying out government projects including the Maharashtra Sadan project, and Bhujbal including his family received kickbacks for the same.Her revision plea sought quashing of the order of the Sessions judge discharging Bhujbal, and directions for expeditious conclusion of the trial. .The Maharashtra Sadan case was registered in 2015 against Bhujbal and sixteen others on allegations that a developer firm had been favoured by Bhujbal when he was the PWD Minister for a project on a land owned by the Regional Transport Office. The project was given to the developer against the construction of the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and an RTO building in Tardeo, Mumbai. The allegation was that Bhujbal family members received kickbacks from the firm. Those linked to the firm had been discharged last month by a Special Judge in August 2021.Damania had opposed the discharge application before the trial court as well.