Mumbai: FIR filed against Kirit Somaiya, his son Neil for alleged misappropriation of funds collected for INS Vikrant

Kirit Somaiya. File Pic

An FIR has been filed against ex-BJP MP Kirit Somiaya and his son Neil Somaiya at the Trombay Police station for alleged misappropriation of over Rs 57 crore collected to save the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The FIR was lodged by an ex-military officer alleging that Somaiya collected funds on the pretext of giving it for repairment and converted INS Vikrant into a museum and siphoned off the money.

The case has been registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) and 34 (common intentions) of the Indian Penal Code against the father-son duo. As per the FIR, registered on April 6, Somaiya collected the donation but did not deposit it with the Maharashtra Raj Bhavan.

On April 6, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut had alleged that Somaiya has siphoned off Rs 57 crore during his collection drive to repair and convert INS Vikrant into a museum during 2013-14.

Rejecting the allegation, Somaiya had said that if Raut has any evidence, he should hand it over to Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray.

Commissioned in 1961, INS Vikrant, a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, had played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971. It was decommissioned in 1997. In January 2014, the ship was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November that year.