Jogeshwari land case: Sanjay Nirupam urges CM to suspend BMC chief

Sanjay Nirupam

City Congress president Sanjay Nirupam urged Maharashtra Chief minsiter Devendra Fadnavis today to suspend BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta for his alleged involvement in losing Rs 500 crore prime piece of land in Suburban Jogeshwari. In his letter, Nirupam alleged that Fadnavis's consistent ignorance has provided Mehta "enough chance do to scams" which are being exposed every passing day.

"The fact that the Jogeshwari plot in question worth Rs 500 crore and measuring 13,000 sq mts, which was initially reserved for a hospital and other public purposes, was deliberately allowed by default to be returned to the private owners makes it evident that this is a major scam in which the municipal commissioner appears to be hand in glove with the private owner," Nirupam's missive reads.

He also enlisted various acts of alleged "omission and commission" on the part of the Brihanmumbai Municipal commissioner which eventually led to the land scam. Nirupam wrote, "Why didn't Ajoy Mehta approach the Supreme Court when the civic body lost the case in High Court? "Also, being the head of the DP Dept, it was Mehta's prime responsibility to track the whole case instead of completely leaving it up to the Law Dept Officials. This indicates gross dereliction of duty or deliberate inaction and criminal conspiracy on the part of the BMC Commissioner." The former MP also urged Fadnavis to order investigation into the "mysterious death" of a Dalit peon of the DP Department, who was in-charge of the tampered file, fell to his death from a train few days later.

"We need to find out whether this was an accident or a murder executed only to wipe out evidence since he was a crucial witness," he demanded. The Mumbai Congress Chief yesterday led a delegation of Congress corporators and met with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) to file an FIR against the alleged corrupt activities of the BMC Commissioner and some other top officials of the civic body. The Congress had demanded yesterday a probe against the BMC after the civic body lost the court case of a plot worth Rs 500 crore in a suburb here. The civic body, however, rejected the charges, saying all due processes were followed to acquire the plot despite the fact that the purchase notice was not served through a proper channel.

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