Govt dilly dallying on arrest of housing scam accused: Ajit

Former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar today accused the state government of "dilly dallying" on arrest of main accused in the Maple housing scam.
"The government is dilly dallying on the issue of arrest of (Maple Group CMD) Sachin Agarwal, accused of cheating common people. Why are police unable to apprehend him?" he told reporters here.
Pawar said he had been the Guardian Minister of Pune and knew how police functions.
"If police want, they can arrest him within 24 hours," he said, adding the accused was responsible for causing hardships to common people who had registered their names for a controversial scheme floated by Maple developers.

Meanwhile, a court here today rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Agarwal, booked under various sections of IPC, including for cheating, in the case being probed by the Economic Offences Wing of Pune police.
Maple Group has been accused of misrepresenting the low cost housing scheme as part of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna with advertisements featuring pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Pune Guardian Minister Girish Bapat.

The firm started returning money to depositors after a case was registered against them following uproar.
Police had said around 32,000 people had booked a flat in the low-cost housing project.

Maple Group had already expressed "regret" over the "confusion" caused by the advertisements.