Mumbai, Sep 24 A special court on Thursday discharged Maharashtra minister Chhagan Bhujbal in an alleged bribery case linked to the award of a contract for a library at the University of Mumbai, saying criminal liability cannot be based on inference of “invisible support”.
The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to demonstrate the “necessary nexus” between the minister’s official acts and the alleged criminality.
“The applicant’s position as PWD Minister (when offence was registered) explains his presence in the governmental process; it does not, by itself, establish his participation in a criminal conspiracy,” it said.
Besides Bhujbal, the special judge for MPs/MLAs cases, Mahesh Jadhav, also discharged three other accused in the 2016 case.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) had alleged that Bhujbal, during his tenure as Maharashtra’s PWD minister, and other accused persons caused huge losses to the state government by leasing out a plot to a private developer at a very low rate in 2009.
The court said that an administrative decision may subsequently be found to be erroneous, financially disadvantageous or even procedurally irregular, but criminal liability requires the “additional element of a series of administrative decisions, alleged irregularities and subsequent events”.
The prosecution has not disclosed with sufficient material a common criminal design which is said to have connected them all, the judge said.
Dismissing the prosecution’s allegation that subordinate officers would not have acted without Bhujbal’s “invisible support”, the judge said “criminal liability cannot be founded upon such an inference” unless the evidence discloses the factual circumstances.
The court said the prosecution had made contradictory claims.
The prosecution says the officers acted as part of the applicant’s (minister’s) modus operandi, but also says that although the officers acted on their own, they could not have done so without the applicant’s “invisible support”, the court noted.
“These are not supported by any independent material showing the actual communication, direction or understanding between applicant and the concerned officers,” it added.
The court underlined that it cannot direct an accused “to face a full-fledged trial” merely because the prosecution has collected a number of circumstances which, upon further assumptions, may possibly be connected with the offence.
“The prosecution has not been able to demonstrate the foundational agreement, the necessary connecting circumstances between the various administrative acts, or the alleged ultimate exchange in a manner which would give rise to a grave suspicion of the alleged conspiracy,” it said.
Consequently, the court concluded that “the circumstances relied upon by the prosecution do not disclose sufficient ground for proceeding against the applicant”.
Bhujbal’s lawyer Sudarshan Khawase said it was the last pending case against the senior NCP leader as he had previously been granted relief in other alleged kickback and financial fraud matters linked to the Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and a housing project in Navi Mumbai.
The ACB had alleged that Bhujbal, during his tenure as PWD minister, along with the other accused persons, caused huge losses to the state government by leasing out a plot to a private developer at a very low rate.
The accused persons received huge kickbacks for the deal, the ACB claimed.
Bhujbal told PTI that the case was devoid of any merit. “I had no connection whatsoever in the matter,” he said.
The case involves a prime four-acre plot in the suburban Kalina belonging to the University of Mumbai, which granted it to the state to construct a library.
The Public Works Department (PWD), then headed by Bhujbal, allegedly issued tenders to construct the library in 2009 on one portion of the plot, and allegedly leased out the remaining land to a well-known developer for 99 years at Re 1 per square metre, which the ACB said was illegal.
The probe agency had claimed that the revenue department was kept in the dark about this deal and the collector was not informed.
The other major cases against Bhujbal included alleged irregularities pertaining to construction of Maharashtra Sadan in Delhi and a housing project in Navi Mumbai. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had probed the money laundering angle in these matters.
A PMLA (anti-money laundering) court had in January this year discharged the NCP leader and other accused from both these cases, citing the relief granted to them in the connected ACB case.
(PTI News)
