A political bigwig in possession of disproportionate assets is no surprise at all. But on the satisfying occasions when some are actually caught, the details never fail to boggle the mind.
In the past ten days, the spotlight has turned on Chhagan Bhujbal, former deputy chief minister and former public works minister of Maharashtra whose questionably-acquired assets are worth Rs 2,000 crore and counting.
Since June 8, the vegetable vendor-turned-millionaire has been raided and booked in two Anti-Corruption Bureau cases for misusing his political position and one criminal case by the Enforcement Directorate for money-laundering. His son and nephew are also in the dock, booked in another ED money-laundering case registered on Wednesday.
Bhujbal has faced a number of political controversies throughout his career in the Shiv Sena, Congress and then the Nationalist Congress Party. But in this case, trouble began building up in November 2014, when Anjali Damania of the Aam Aadmi Party filed a complaint with the ACB accusing him of abusing power and amassing wealth.
As the Enforcement Directorate and the ACB continue their probes with the blessings of the Bharatiya Janta Party governments in Maharashtra and the Centre, here’s a recap of how the muck got deeper for Chhagan Bhujbal.
A muddied trail of construction scams
Bhujbal served as Maharashtra’s public works minister from 2004 to September 2014 and based on the FIRs filed against him, he made the most of his term amassing personal wealth from his official seat.
The most notorious case is the construction of the New Maharashtra Sadan state guest house in Delhi, whose contract was given to a certain Chamankar Builders without inviting tenders. The same construction company was also given contracts for building a Regional Transport Office and another government guest house in Mumbai. The contracts were worth around Rs 100 crore.
In 2012, two BJP leaders – Kirit Somaiya and Devendra Fadnavis – filed an ACB complaint accusing Bhujbal of giving transferable development rights worth Rs 10,000 crore to Chamankar Builders and receiving generous kickbacks in return for the construction of these three buildings that should not have cost more than Rs 300 crore.
In December 2014, after Fadnavis became the chief minister, the state government gave the nod for an open inquiry into the Maharashtra Sadan case. The ACB finally filed its FIR on June 11, booking Bhujbal and other former officials of the public works department for misusing their official positions for personal gain.
The FIR also accuses them of giving contracts for Maharashtra Sadan’s furniture to two companies controlled by the larger Bhujbal family – Parvesh Construction and Armstrong Energy. The directors of these companies are Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and his nephew Sameer, who are also listed as accused in the ACB case.
Jackpot in a library
Before Maharashtra Sadan, however, there was the Kalina library scam in Mumbai. It began in 2009, when the state public works ministry signed an agreement with construction giant Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd to build a public library in Kalina, where Mumbai University is located. This was a Rs 124-crore contract that allowed Indiabulls to build a luxury residential tower on a part of the six-acre plot. The land for the tower, however, was given to the builder for a lease amount of Re 1 for 99 years.
The ACB investigation later revealed that the Chhagan Bhujbal Charitable Trust in Nashik received “donations” worth at least Rs 2.5 crore from Indiabulls. In its FIR filed on June 8, the ACB has booked not just Bhujbal but also five other bureaucrats from his erstwhile department under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Two more cases
The two ACB cases have enabled the Enforcement Directorate to charge the Bhujbals with money-laundering in two separate Economic Case Information Reports filed on June 17.
In one case, Parvesh Construction and Armstrong Energy – the two family-run companies headed by Bhujbal’s son and nephew – have been accused of floating non-existent shell companies to buy their shares at a hefty premium. The premiums for Rs 100 shares soared as high as Rs 9,900, and the scam helped the two companies make Rs 130 crore.
The other case specifically accuses Pankaj and Sameer Bhujbal and other directors of a company called Devisha Infrastructure of cheating home buyers in Navi Mumbai. With funds from an unknown source, the company bought a plot in Kharghar and sold flats in the proposed Hex World housing project. The company is accused of accepting as many as 2,300 advance bookings, making Rs 44 crore through them and then failing to complete the construction.
Apartments, bungalows, clubhouses
For the Bhujbals, all the alleged money-laundering has translated into a handsome list of assets that Chhagan Bhujbal describes as either “ancestral property” or property bought four decades ago.
This week’s ACB raids revealed that Bhujbal and his kin own at least 17 flats in Mumbai and Thane, six bungalows in Nashik and Pune districts, nine shop spaces in Navi Mumbai, a helipad in his Lonavala bungalow and a 46,500 sq ft space in Nashik called Bhujbal Farms. This property, which has a 25-room palace, gyms and a full-sized swimming pool, is worth Rs 100 crore alone – a far cry from the Rs 22 crore that Bhujbal had listed as his total assets in his election affidavit.
With four criminal cases duly booked, arrest seems imminent for Chhagan Bhujbal. How much of his wealth will he be able to answer for?
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In the past ten days, the spotlight has turned on Chhagan Bhujbal, former deputy chief minister and former public works minister of Maharashtra whose questionably-acquired assets are worth Rs 2,000 crore and counting.
Since June 8, the vegetable vendor-turned-millionaire has been raided and booked in two Anti-Corruption Bureau cases for misusing his political position and one criminal case by the Enforcement Directorate for money-laundering. His son and nephew are also in the dock, booked in another ED money-laundering case registered on Wednesday.
Bhujbal has faced a number of political controversies throughout his career in the Shiv Sena, Congress and then the Nationalist Congress Party. But in this case, trouble began building up in November 2014, when Anjali Damania of the Aam Aadmi Party filed a complaint with the ACB accusing him of abusing power and amassing wealth.
As the Enforcement Directorate and the ACB continue their probes with the blessings of the Bharatiya Janta Party governments in Maharashtra and the Centre, here’s a recap of how the muck got deeper for Chhagan Bhujbal.
A muddied trail of construction scams
Bhujbal served as Maharashtra’s public works minister from 2004 to September 2014 and based on the FIRs filed against him, he made the most of his term amassing personal wealth from his official seat.
The most notorious case is the construction of the New Maharashtra Sadan state guest house in Delhi, whose contract was given to a certain Chamankar Builders without inviting tenders. The same construction company was also given contracts for building a Regional Transport Office and another government guest house in Mumbai. The contracts were worth around Rs 100 crore.
In 2012, two BJP leaders – Kirit Somaiya and Devendra Fadnavis – filed an ACB complaint accusing Bhujbal of giving transferable development rights worth Rs 10,000 crore to Chamankar Builders and receiving generous kickbacks in return for the construction of these three buildings that should not have cost more than Rs 300 crore.
In December 2014, after Fadnavis became the chief minister, the state government gave the nod for an open inquiry into the Maharashtra Sadan case. The ACB finally filed its FIR on June 11, booking Bhujbal and other former officials of the public works department for misusing their official positions for personal gain.
The FIR also accuses them of giving contracts for Maharashtra Sadan’s furniture to two companies controlled by the larger Bhujbal family – Parvesh Construction and Armstrong Energy. The directors of these companies are Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and his nephew Sameer, who are also listed as accused in the ACB case.
Jackpot in a library
Before Maharashtra Sadan, however, there was the Kalina library scam in Mumbai. It began in 2009, when the state public works ministry signed an agreement with construction giant Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd to build a public library in Kalina, where Mumbai University is located. This was a Rs 124-crore contract that allowed Indiabulls to build a luxury residential tower on a part of the six-acre plot. The land for the tower, however, was given to the builder for a lease amount of Re 1 for 99 years.
The ACB investigation later revealed that the Chhagan Bhujbal Charitable Trust in Nashik received “donations” worth at least Rs 2.5 crore from Indiabulls. In its FIR filed on June 8, the ACB has booked not just Bhujbal but also five other bureaucrats from his erstwhile department under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Two more cases
The two ACB cases have enabled the Enforcement Directorate to charge the Bhujbals with money-laundering in two separate Economic Case Information Reports filed on June 17.
In one case, Parvesh Construction and Armstrong Energy – the two family-run companies headed by Bhujbal’s son and nephew – have been accused of floating non-existent shell companies to buy their shares at a hefty premium. The premiums for Rs 100 shares soared as high as Rs 9,900, and the scam helped the two companies make Rs 130 crore.
The other case specifically accuses Pankaj and Sameer Bhujbal and other directors of a company called Devisha Infrastructure of cheating home buyers in Navi Mumbai. With funds from an unknown source, the company bought a plot in Kharghar and sold flats in the proposed Hex World housing project. The company is accused of accepting as many as 2,300 advance bookings, making Rs 44 crore through them and then failing to complete the construction.
Apartments, bungalows, clubhouses
For the Bhujbals, all the alleged money-laundering has translated into a handsome list of assets that Chhagan Bhujbal describes as either “ancestral property” or property bought four decades ago.
This week’s ACB raids revealed that Bhujbal and his kin own at least 17 flats in Mumbai and Thane, six bungalows in Nashik and Pune districts, nine shop spaces in Navi Mumbai, a helipad in his Lonavala bungalow and a 46,500 sq ft space in Nashik called Bhujbal Farms. This property, which has a 25-room palace, gyms and a full-sized swimming pool, is worth Rs 100 crore alone – a far cry from the Rs 22 crore that Bhujbal had listed as his total assets in his election affidavit.
With four criminal cases duly booked, arrest seems imminent for Chhagan Bhujbal. How much of his wealth will he be able to answer for?
