CBI Files Chargesheet in Land Scam Exposed by Slain RTI Activist

Pune-Mumbai Expressway land grabbing scam was exposed by the slain RTI activist Satish Shetty in 2009. Image used for representational purpose. 

(Photo: iStock)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Wednesday, 6 December, filed a chargesheet against 16 people, including senior officials of IRB Infrastructure in the sessions court in Pune, in connection with a land scam exposed by the slain RTI activist Satish Shetty in 2009.

CBI prosecutor Vijaykumar Dhakane said the 2,000-page chargesheet names 16 persons, including IRB chairman and managing director Virendra Mhaiskar, Deepak Gadgil, authorised signatory of M/s Aryan Infrastructures (a subsidiary of Ideal Road Builders), revenue officials, land agents, lawyers and some farmers.

Based on documents received under the Right to Information Act, Shetty had filed a cheating and forgery case with Lonavala police in October 2009 against Mhaiskar and others, alleging illegal purchase of government land in Ozarde and Pimploli villages in Maval tehsil of Pune district.

On 13 January 2010, Shetty was hacked to death at Talegaon Dabhade by unidentified assailants.

While the land scam case was initially closed after the Pune Rural police filed a closure report, the CBI, after taking over the Shetty murder case, moved the Bombay High Court in August 2014, and sought permission to reopen it.

In January 2015, the CBI conducted searches at 21 residential and office premises of IRB, and its senior officials in Mumbai and Pune and claimed to have seized some incriminating material.

IRB, in a statement on Wednesday, said:

It appears that the chargesheet focuses on alleged conspiracy to attempt to cheat for acquiring certain land parcels belonging to the government/MSRDC. We deny all allegations made against Mr Mhaiskar, Mr Gadgil... the company will seek appropriate remedies under law.