HC calls for ACB investigation report in Balganga Dam project

The Bombay High Court today said it wanted to peruse investigation reports of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the alleged Rs 494-crore scam involving construction of Balganga dam project in Raigad district of Maharashtra.
Accordingly, a bench, headed by Justice Naresh Patil, asked ACB to produce the reports before June 2016 about their investigation in a case registered by it against a company and its owners for alleged involvement in the scam.
The court was acting on a bunch of petitions seeking to quash FIR in the scam involving construction of Balganga dam project in Raigad district.
Jaitoon Khatri, Fateh Khatri, Nisar Khatri and Abid Khatri of the company -- which bagged the government contract for constructing Balganga dam -- had filed separate petitions seeking to quash the FIR registered against them by ACB in this matter.

According to ACB, investigations had allegedly shown that the accused had diverted a major portion of Rs 494 crore that was paid to their firm M/s F A Enterprises by Maharashtra government for the project, to the accounts of dummy companies owned by the family.
ACB has booked 11 accused, including government officials, under IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged misconduct in the tendering process of Balganga dam project.

The case of ACB is that funds were disbursed to accused for the project and they in turn diverted the money to various firms claiming these pertained to the works related to the project.

However, ACB reportedly learnt during investigations that these were allegedly dummy companies floated by the accused for siphoning off the money.
The accused have denied the accusations in the petitions and told the High Court that they were falsely implicated in the case.