Mumbai: A special court here on Thursday discharged Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal in a 2016 case involving alleged kickbacks received in the award of a contract for a library at University of Mumbai's Kalina campus here.
Bhujbal's lawyer said it was the last pending case against the senior NCP leader as he had previously been granted relief in other alleged kickback and financial fraud matters linked to the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and a housing project in Navi Mumbai.
Other than Bhujbal, the special MPs/MLAs court also discharged six other accused in the case, granting them relief at the pre-trial stage. The reasoned order was not available yet.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had alleged that Bhujbal, during his tenure as PWD minister, along with the other accused persons, caused huge losses to the state government by leasing out a plot to a private developer at a very low rate.
The accused persons received huge kickbacks for the deal, the ACB claimed.
Bhujbal told PTI that the case was devoid of any merit. "I had no connection whatsoever in the matter," he said.
The case involves a prime four-acre plot in the suburban Kalina belonging to the University of Mumbai, which granted it to the state to construct a library.
The Public Works Department (PWD), then headed by Bhujbal, allegedly issued tenders to construct the library in 2009 on one portion of the plot, and allegedly leased out the remaining land to a well-known developer for 99 years at Re 1 per square metre, which the ACB said was illegal.
The probe agency had claimed that the revenue department was kept in the dark about this deal and the collector was not informed.
The other major cases against Bhujbal included alleged irregularities pertaining to construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and a housing project in Navi Mumbai. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had probed the money laundering angle in these matters.
A PMLA (anti-money laundering) court had in January this year discharged the NCP leader and other accused from both these cases, citing the relief granted to them in the connected ACB case.
This report was published from a wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.