Former Thane civic chief deposes in TMT graft case

"During his deposition, Chandrasekhar informed the court that he had accorded sanction to the work based on the files and papers which came before him in connection with the body building of TMT buses," Additional Public Prosecutor Hemlata Deshmukh said.

The court of District and Special judge K R Warrier recorded Chandrasekar's statement and directed the municipal corporation to submit before it all relevant files/documents concerning the case, she said.

The former IAS officer during his tenure as civic chief is credited with removing illegal encroachments in Thane city.

The case involves 16 persons including some present and ex-corporators. It is the prosecution's case that as many as 16 important files of the case had mysteriously disappeared from the official record.

 

Among the accused are eight corporators--some of them associated with Shiv Sena and MNS--besides retired TMT officials and three private parties.

The accused are being tried for the offences under sections 13(1)(c)(d) with 13(2) and sections 120(B) (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the IPC.

The FIR in this regard had been registered by the Thane unit of Anti Corruption Bureau.

TMT is the transportation wing of Thane Municipal Corporation, which operates a large number of bus lines in the Thane metropolitan area.

According to prosecution, the accused subverted the official process in awarding contracts to three parties for building chassis of 30 buses at inflated rates.