Bombay HC issues notices to Bhujbal, PWD Secy in Rs 119 crore scam

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has issued notices to Maharashtra PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Principal Secretary Shyamal Mukherjee directing them to reply before next week for favouring a city contractor in alleged scam of Rs 119.54 crore.

A division bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Chandrakant Bhadang yesterday expressed anguish over the government's move to "protect" Ankit Constructions belonging to NIT trustee local politician Kishor Kanhere despite having material evidence against the company, terming its action as "shocking" and "uncalled for".

The court also served notices on PWD desk officer P G Wanjari, Secretary V D Sardeshmukh, and Deputy Secretary R B Gadge asking them why contempt action shouldn't be initiated against them.

Earlier, PWD Chief Engineer Arvind Sagane informed in an affidavit that the government had demoted Kanhere's company from '1A' category to '1B' from April 4 for a year, but it failed to convince the court that restrained the government from allotting any work to Ankit Constructions until further orders.

Instead, the court directed petitioner to join the company as respondent and issued notice to it on why it shouldn't be blacklisted.

The affidavit attached with the enquiry report against Ankit Constructions revealed how the exchequer suffered massive losses due to alleged large-scale irregularities by the company.

While doing repair works of 'Deogiri', the official residence of Deputy Chief Minister during the Nagpur visit, the government suffered a loss of Rs 11.56 lakh, while for repairing staircase, it was Rs 1.52 lakh, as work was not done as per specifications. PWD has to recover about Rs 13.10 lakh from the company for other works including the Ring Road, it said.