HC asks ACB not to file FIR against ex-SRA chief till Aug 9

The Bombay High Court today asked the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) not to file an FIR till August 9 against Vishwas Patil, former Mumbai suburban Collector and Chief Executive Officer of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), on alleged corruption charges.
A division bench headed by Justice V K Tahilramani said that on August 9 it would hear a petition filed by Patil challenging a special court order directing the ACB to lodge an FIR against him over alleged irregularities in transfer of land.
Patil, in his petition filed in the high court, claimed that the ACB would have to first take sanction from the state government to prosecute him as he was a public servant at the time of the alleged offence.

"Till August 9, the ACB shall not file an FIR against the petitioner (Patil)," Justice Tahilramani said.
The special ACB court had on July 28 ordered lodging of an FIR against Patil, his wife and two developers, Ramji Shah and Rasesh Kanakia.
The lower court was hearing a private complaint filed by suburban Malad resident and shop occupant Hitendra Yadav, who alleged that Patil and others conspired to hand over a large government area as free sale plot, where Kanakia is constructing a luxury project called Kanakia Levels.
The allegation is that Patil, as the then Mumbai suburban district collector, transferred the government land at Malad east to developer Ramji Shah, after his wife was made a director in Shah's company.

In a slum rehabilitation scheme, 44 per cent extra land was given for development to the Kanakias, alleged Yadav's lawyer Aditya Pratap Singh.