An FIR has been filed against former MP and BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil at the Trombay police station. The FIR lodged by a ex-militaryman, has alleged that Somaiya collected funds on the pretext of giving them for the repairs and conversion of INS Vikrant into a museum, and misappropriated them. The complainant claimed he too had donated Rs 2,000 and felt cheated when he came to know that the money collected never reached Raj Bhavan.

Baban Bhosale, a former sepoy in the Indian Army, has claimed that in 2013 while he was passing by Churchgate Railway station, he saw Kirit and Neil Somaiya and others collecting money for the repairs of INS Vikrant and to convert it into a war museum. “As an army man and since I knew what Vikrant has done for us, I donated Rs 2,000. After few months, I read in the newspaper that the Vikrant had been scrapped. In reply to an RTI query asking whether funds collected by Kirit Somaiya and others were sent to Raj Bhavan, the secretary of the governor clearly said no such money was received. “