Cop who makes 51k a month worth 40crore

Inspector Was Busted For 15,000 Bribe
As a police inspector, Mahendra Chavan (48) makes Rs 51,000 a month. That he has three bank accounts with Rs 16 lakh in deposits can be explained by smart investments. That he has two cars and has liquor worth Rs 30,000 in the bar can be explained by considering him to be a man of taste who knows his priorities. What cannot be explained, and what has the police searching for answers, is that he owns property worth over Rs 40 crore.

Chavan, an officer at the Ulhasnagar police station, was caught by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) four days ago for accepting a bribe of Rs 15,000. There are other sordid details about him. The ACB said he is a loan shark: the bureau has learnt of at least two people who took Rs 16 lakh from him at very high interest rates. It said he is also a sex pest.

Chavan comes from a middle class family; his wife is a homemaker and they have two school-going children. The ACB raided his home in Varap village, Titwala, and found proof of assets far beyond his known sources of income. They include documents proving he owns 187 guntha, or over 18,918 sq m, in Kalyan, Titwala and Ulhasnagar. The properties are worth over Rs 40 crore, said experts. “Because of a boom in the area, property rates are very high. The cost of one guntha in places like Maharal and Varap on Murbad Road can vary in the Rs 10-30 lakh range,” said Ashok Jadhav, an agent.

Inspector Vaidya of ACB, Thane, said the bureau is yet to reach the exact valuation for the properties, “but yes, the price of land in those areas is very high and what Chavan owns may cost several crores of rupees”.

An ACB source said a preliminary probe suggests that Chavan bought property with ill-gotten money. “He comes from a very ordinary background and is the only earning member in his family.”

On sex complaints against Chavan, an officer said, “At least eight women have complained against him, claiming that he sexually abused them when they went to lodge cases at his police station. We have recorded the statements of three of the women. We will submit a report on the matter to the Thane police commissioner, who can then have an FIR filed under sections 354 (sexual assault) and 509 (words, gestures or act intended to insult the modesty of women) of the Indian Penal Code against Chavan.”
Courtesy:
Pradeep Gupta TNN
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Cops seek speaker’s sanction to prosecute Kripa for corruption

Mumbai police write to Speaker Dilip Walse-Patil to invoke the Prevention of Corruption Act against the beleaguered Cong leader

The Mumbai Police has sought the Assembly speaker’s permission to prosecute senior Congress leader Kripa Shankar Singh under the Prevention of Corruption Act, three months after the Supreme Court dismissed his plea seeking stay on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the allegations.

The Supreme Court had in September directed Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh, who is heading the SIT, to submit a final report or a closure report before a trial court in Mumbai.

Police wrote to Dilip Walse-Patil, the Assembly speaker last week, seeking sanction to proceed against Kalina MLA Singh, who resigned as the city Congress chief last year following allegations of corruption. The Prevention of Corruption Act demands that the investigating agency seeks prosecution sanction from the controlling authority of any public servant against whom it intends to proceed.

According to the Mumbai Police sources, the SIT probe revealed that Singh amassed assets around 20 per cent more that his sources of income.

Satyapal Singh and Walse-Patil remained unavailable for comment, but police sources said a watertight case has been prepared against Singh. “Police have sought permission to prosecute a senior politician, which proves the cops have a strong case,” a source said.

Kripa Shankar Singh’s troubles started in 2010, when activist Sanjay Tiwari filed a complaint against the politician with the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Not satisfied with the ACB probe, Tiwari filed a public interest litigation in the High Court, which directed the then Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik to register an offence. Kripa Shankar challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court, which didn't stay the probe but started monitoring the investigation.

THE ALLEGATIONS
Tiwari alleged in his PIL that Kripa Shankar was close to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, an accused in the multi-crore hawala scam and other corruption cases.

Kripa Shankar’s son Narendra is married to Ankita, daughter of Kamlesh Singh, who was a minister in the Koda-led Cabinet. The PIL alleged that Ankita received Rs 1.75 crore from Kamlesh's bank account, and that there were huge transactions from the bank accounts of Kripa Shankar's wife Malti too.

The PIL, which Kripa Shankar termed “politically motivated”, said that the Congress leader bought a number of properties in a span of just two years (between 2004 and 2006).

In November 2009, Mumbai Mirror revealed thataNaviMumbaipropertyworthRs25crore, in the name of Kripa Shankar's wife, was not mentioned in the affidavit declaring his assets ahead of the 2009 Assembly elections.

The purchase agreement was signed by the power of attorney holder, a constable named Vishnukant Shukla (how does a constable hold the power of attorney for a plot worth Rs 25 crore bought by the Congress leader's wife in 2004, Mumbai Mirror, November 17, 2009).

Kripa Shankar is also accused of not declaring two plots co-owned by his wife, and a duplex apartment in Vile Parle, bought in the name of his wife and son, to which he said the apartment was bought by his son and that his wife's ownership was only nominal.
Courtesy:
Abhijit.Sathe @timesgroup.com TWEET @_abhijit_sathe
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Mumbai has the state’s most corrupt officials

ACB records show 16% of 1,010 graft cases in Maharashtra are from city

MUMBAI: The city’s government and public sector officials are more corrupt than those in the rest of Maharashtra, reveals the latest data compiled by the AntiCorruption Bureau (ACB).

Cases against officials in Mumbai make up 16% of the total cases registered in the state — 1,010 — between January 1 and October 31, 2013, as per the data submitted by the ACB to the chief minister’s office recently, and accessed by HT.

By the end of October, 164 cases had been re gistered against them, of which 99 are discreet inquiries, 21 open inquiries, 40 involved traps laid to catch them and four are instances of disproportionate assets.

Nashik follows closely with 155 cases.

While the ACB’s Mumbai region data does not have casespecific and department-specific information, state-wide statistics show the police and the revenue department vying for top spot in the corruption chart. While the police have 126 corruption cases against them (involving 197 employees), the revenue department is close behind at 125 cases (involving 161 staffers).

The ACB has seized disproportionate assets worth around Rs21 crore from 17 accused, and in this category, the public works department tops the list, with assets worth Rs17.8 crore being seized from eight of its officials.

While top-ranked (class one and class two officers) in the PWD and transport departments were found to have accumulated a lot of disproportionate assets, no officers in these ranks in the police, revenue, irrigation, civic corporations, forest, education, agriculture and zilla parishads have such cases registered against them.

Though far less compared to police and revenue officials, local self-government staffers - civic corporations, zilla parishads and panchayat samitis - too have a significant number of cases registered against them. Employees of the public health and state electricity company, Mahavitaran, too are not above corruption.
Courtesy:
3 Dec 2013,
Hindustan Times (Mumbai)
Dharmendra Jore dharmendra.jore@hindustantimes.com
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Tax Haven Expose: Govt probing those named in tax haven expose: Chidambaram

Two days after The Indian Express reported that an international group of investigative journalists had found details of more than 1.2 lakh offshore entities and trusts belonging to individuals and companies of more than 170 countries and territories including India, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said an inquiry had been initiated against persons named in the report.

The report lists 612 Indians, including two members of Parliament — Lok Sabha Congress MP Vivekanand Gaddam and Rajya Sabha member Vijay Mallya — and several industrialists.

Several offshore investments were made in possible violation of RBI and FEMA rules. The investments were made in tax havens including British Virgin Islands, Samoa, Cook Islands.

Asked at a press conference on Saturday whether the government had taken any action on the report, Chidambaram said: "Yes. We have taken note of the names and inquiries have been put in motion in respect of the names that have been exposed."

Details of transactions in the tax havens were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The ICIJ collaborated with 38 media organisations around the world, including The Indian Express, for this global project.
Courtesy:
ENS Economic Bureau : New Delhi, Sun Apr 07 2013, 02:40 hrs

Tax Haven Expose: Global media investigation finds 612 Indian firms in tax havens

In the biggest global expose of its kind on offshore investments and secret financial transactions, an international group of investigative journalists has found details of more than 1.2 lakh offshore entities and trusts belonging to individuals and companies in more than 170 countries and territories, including India.

These individuals and companies include politicians, the mega rich and tax offenders, among others, who have invested in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands, Samoa and other offshore hideaways.

The 612 Indians in this list include two members of Parliament — Lok Sabha Congress MP Vivekanand Gaddam and RS member Vijay Mallya — and several industrialists such as Ravikant Ruia, Samir Modi, Chetan Burman, Abhey Kumar Oswal, Rahul Mammen Mappillai, Teja Raju, Saurabh Mittal and Vinod Doshi.

The list also includes businessmen who have had a brush with authorities such as the Income-Tax department and the CBI. Several of the offshore investments were made in possible violation of RBI and FEMA rules.

Details of these transactions were contained in 2.5 million secret files and accounted for more than 260 gigabytes of data. They were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and their total size is more than 160 times larger than the leak of the US State Department documents by Wikileaks in 2010.

Based in Washington DC, ICIJ (www.icij.org) is an independent network of reporters who work together on cross-border investigations.

ICIJ collaborated with 38 media organisations around the world, including the The Indian Express, for this ambitious global project and to analyse the documents. The other media partners include The Washington Post in the US, The Guardian and BBC in Britain, Le Monde in France and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The secret files provide facts and figures — cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals — that illustrate how financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe. They represent the biggest stockpile of inside information about the offshore system ever obtained by a media organisation.

Besides several well-known Indians, the lists include American doctors and dentists, middle-class Greek villagers as well as families and associates of long-time despots, Wall Street swindlers, East European and Indonesian billionaires, Russian corporate executives and international arms dealers.

These people used international financial services providers such as the Portcullis Trustnet (PTN) of Singapore and the Commonwealth Trust Limited (CTL) in the British Virgin Islands to register offshore companies in tax havens. PTN and CTL, it has been found, have helped tens of thousands of people set up off-shore companies, personal financial trusts and hard-to-trace bank accounts.

Anti-corruption campaigners argue that offshore secrecy undermines law and order and forces average citizens to pay higher taxes to make up for revenues that vanish offshore. The stolen asset recovery initiative, a programme of the Wold Bank and the United Nations, has estimated that cross-border flows of global proceeds of financial crimes total between $1 trillion and $ 1.6 trillion a year.

On the other hand, offshore defenders counter that most offshore patrons are engaged in legitimate business transactions. Offshore centres, they say, allow companies and individuals to diversify their investments, force commercial alliances across national borders and do business in entrepreneur-friendly zones that eschew the heavy rules and redtape of the onshore world.

The 15-month long investigation has found that alongside perfectly legal transactions, the secrecy and lax oversight offered by the offshore world allows fraud, tax dodging and political corruption to thrive. The expose has also thrown light on the functioning of "nominee directors'' in offshore companies, several of whom have also been engaged by Indian patrons of offshore companies.

For instance, a cluster of 28 "sham directors'' have been identified as having served as the on-paper representatives of more than 21,000 companies between them, with some individual directors representing as many as 4,000 companies each.

The expose comes shortly after a list of 18 Indians who had bank accounts in the LGT Liechtenstein Bank and around 700 Indians who had accounts in HSBC in Geneva became public. In both cases, account holders were prosecuted and paid penalties to Income-Tax authorities for deposits they had made abroad without paying taxes in India.

Incidentally, India had signed a double taxation treaty called the Tax Information Exchange Agreement with the BVI in 2011 to check tax evasion and money laundering from the tax haven. Finance ministry officials said that similar agreements are in the process of being drafted with the Cook Islands and Samoa.

While the Liberalized Remittance Scheme 2012 permits Indians to deposit up to $200,000 abroad annually, the RBI has made it clear that this does not include deposits in tax havens. "As yet, the $200,000 facility for remittances abroad is not applicable for individuals to open accounts or companies in tax havens," a RBI spokesperson told The Indian Express.

Auditors said the legality of holding offshore accounts and registering offshore companies is complex. The RBI restriction on individuals incorporating companies abroad, they said, can be easily circumvented if an offshore company is first incorporated and the shareholding then transfered to the beneficial owner.

In the cases under scrunity, documents show that both patterns have been followed. The date of incorporation and the date of the patrons being appointed shareholders/directors is either identical — which is a violation of RBI guidelines — or is a month or so later. If it is the latter, these individuals can say they just acquired shares of an offshore company.

However, with individuals debarred from using LRS for setting up companies, even the remittance dispatched by them for setting up an offshore entity can be a violation. Under rules of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the use of the offshore route to bring in FDI is also prohibitted and is a violation of Section 8 of the act.

There is also a restraint on individuals setting up offshore companies without the prior approval of the RBI.

MEGA BYTES
* 15-month investigation based on 260 GB data in 2.5 million secret files including 2 million emails covering nearly 30 years

* Data had details of over 1.2 lakh offshore firms/trusts and 12,000 agents

* Owners, benefactors of offshore accounts spread across more than 170 countries, territories

* 86 ICIJ journalists from 38 media organisations in 46 countries collaborated in investigation

* Data found 28 'sham directors' who together represented 21,000 firms
Courtesy:
Ritu Sarin , ICIJ REPORTERS : New Delhi, Washington, Thu Apr 04 2013, 08:45 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/global-media-investigation-finds-612-indian-firms-in-tax-havens/1097501/0

Depts holding up action against ‘corrupt’ exposed

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has put several of its departments in the dock for sitting on requests for action against public servants prima facie found engaging in corruption.

In an affidavit filed on Monday before the Bombay high court, the state home department notes that other departments have repeatedly failed to clear the prosecution or investigation of more than 150 administrators and politicians accused in graft cases. Some permissions are awaited since 2001.

In the affidavit, joint secretary (home) Ruprao Deshmukh says that seven reminders were sent to the concerned departments’ secretaries between 2011 and 2012 to approve at the earliest the pending Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) proposals. Officials revealed to TOI that their response was far from ideal.

Rules mandate that the ACB follow stipulated steps while investigating a government official or minister. Most prominent among them is seeking the state’s approval to conduct an “Open Inquiry” and to prosecute. The state gives its nod after an ACB appeal has travelled through various stages and been green-lighted at every juncture.

“To clear the sanction-to-prosecute cases and review pendency, meetings were taken by the chief secretary on July 14, September 28 and December 31 of 2012. A booklet on relevant judgments on sanction to prosecute under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, was circulated to secretaries,” reads the affidavit filed before the high court, which is hearing a public interest litigation on the issue.

The petition is likely to be heard by the court on Wednesday.


According to the affidavit, the highest number of the allegedly corrupt officers is in the police and revenue departments, which together account for more than 40% of the pending approvals. These are followed in the graft list by municipal corporations, zilla parishads and others.

The affidavit lays bare some departments’ delay in clearing action against high-profile functionaries as well as class III and class IV employees for over a decade.

Home department officials said the affidavit is an effort to debunk accusations that the government is not willing to take on corrupt officials and politicians. Governmental apathy has been blamed even by the ACB for lack of headway in graft cases.

According to the affidavit, 42 applications for prosecution of class I and class II officials were pending till December 2012. For class III and IV officials, the list was longer at 67 pending cases.

In 17 cases, even Open Enquiries were not sanctioned against senior politicians and bureaucrats: Among these were PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal, former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, then Akola municipal commissioner L Deshmukh, IAS (officer) Ashok Lal, M B Appalwar (then posted with MHADA), Congress MLA Ram Prasad Bordikar, Haffkine Biopharma MD Prakash Sabde, and former Nashik municipal commissioner Bhaskar Sanap.

“These are crucial cases, but not a single approval has come in them. Why has the government not taken action against the department secretaries sitting on these files?” said a senior ACB officer. He added that the delay in sanctions is a deliberate attempt to put the cases in cold storage.
Courtesy:
Sharad Vyas TNN
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SCAMSTERS ON THE RUN: ACB sets up two new cells to nail graft accused

Mumbai: To enhance the conviction rates and bring a strict discipline in various departments, the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has set up a technical analysis wing (TAW) and a recommendation cell.

While TAW will help the ACB collect technical evidences like data from computer hard disks/motherboards, mirror images, CCTV footages and other evidences, the recommendation cell will suggest punishments for officials caught in the corruption cases. The two cells, which came into effect recently, are the brainchild additional commissioner of police (ACB) Rajesh More.

Sources said that when a public servant is arrested in corruption and disproportionate assets cases , the ACB carries searches of their houses and offices, and seizes computers, laptops, cellphones, etc, as evidence.

“Many-a times, the accused are let off due to lack of evidence or when an investigating officer fails to present technical evidences before the court of law. Some cases are too technical for a layperson to understand. In such cases, TAW will explain the charges,” said More, adding that these cells will reduce the burden on Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which is short-staffed.

More said that it was not feasible to transport the entire computer or other electronic devices, hence TAW will retrieve data into hard copies, make mirror images of the motherboard and will help the IO in presenting his case accurately and precisely before the court of law.

About the recommendation cell, an officer said, “It has been seen in the past that court trials go on for years, during which the IO changes and senior officials too get transferred. In such cases, the arrested corrupt officials get acquitted due to lack of evidence or lapses. The recommendation cell will hence suggest to the departments concerned on punishments, stoppage of increments, promotions, etc,” said an ACB officer. In many cases, several accused officers are reinstated at key posts even before their cases are settled in the court, the officer added.

“This cell will see that the accused’s act is brought on record in his Annual Confidential Report (ACR). The cell, after going through court orders, will recommend suitable punishment to the departments concerned,” said the officer.
Courtesy:
S Ahmed Ali TNN
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ACB seeks nod to probe irrigation minister in irrigation scam

Mumbai: The Anti-Corruption Bureau has sought the state government’s okay to launch an “open inquiry” against irrigation minister Sunil Tatkare over allegations of land grab and disproportionate assets.

A “discreet inquiry” against the senior NCP leader, sources said, is already complete. The ACB now wants authorization for the second stage of the investigation—“open inquiry” —so that it can call for official files and, if required, summon Tatkare for questioning.
“We have forwarded the request to the general administration department. It will follow the usual course (to the concerned department and chief secretary) before landing up at the CM’s table for the final nod,” said a home official.

With the latest appeal, the pending ACB requests for investigating sitting ministers has risen to three.

Discreet inquiry against Congress min nearly over Mumbai: As the Anti-Corruption Bureau sought the state’s nod to probe Sunil Tatkare, the total tally of pending ACB requests for investigating sitting ministers rose to three. The bureau sought a goahead to probe public works minister Chhagan Bhujbal three months ago and medical education minister Vijaykumar Gavit three years ago.

ACB sources said the agency is about to complete a discreet inquiry against a fourth minister: a Congress leader facing allegations for his role in the Coalgate scam. “A requestfor a fourthopen inquiry will be forwarded to the state soon,” said an ACB official.

A close aide of former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, Tatkare is accused of cornering 7,500 acres of farmland by creating front companies. He is accused of misusing his power and authority, as the statewater resources andirrigation minister, to grant arbitrary sanctions for irrigation projects. “I do not want to speak on the matter (either the inquiry or allegations) right now since it is in court,” Tatkare told TOI.

The request on Tatkare is bound to add to the worries of the government as it dithers on the previous two appeals. ACB sleuths said the prolonged official inaction shows lack of political will in the government. As it is, a sanction file needs to travel through a long, winding route—first through the home department to the general administration department to secretaries of the departments concerned to the chief secretary and finally to the chief minister. Worst of all, thereis noindependent mechanism to expedite or assist in the process.

“We expect the government’s nod to ideally come in less than two months, which is enough for the government to study a case properly. Beyond this, if the government takes time, it only shows a deliberate attempt to sit on the inquiry application,” said a senior ACB official.

The permission for a probe against Gavit, sources pointed out, is pending before the state since May 14, 2009. In the case of Bhujbal, the ACB filed the request letter on July 18, 2012, and it is said to have reached the chief minister’s table. “The departments (including the PWD, home and chief secretary) have given their view. It is now awaiting the CM’s green signal,” said an official.
UNDER THE SCANNER
Sunil Tatkare | The NCP leader faces allegations of land grab and disproportionate assets. The opposition says Tatkare and his family cornered 7,500 acres of farmland by creating front companies. The irrigation minister, he is also accused of granting arbitrary sanctions for irrigation projects

Vijaykumar Gavit | The state medical education minister is alleged to have amassed assets beyond his means of income. The properties were bought, it is claimed, in the name of his family members. The ACB sought permission for inquiry on May 14, 2009

Chhagan Bhujbal | The PWD minister is accused of receiving ‘favours’ when he gave out a contract for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi. The ACB sought permission for an open inquiry on July 18, 2012

STEP BY STEP | Rules mandate that the ACB follow these steps while investigating a government official (class I) or minister

Discreet Inquiry | The ACB, upon receipt of a complaint or allegation, conducts a discreet inquiry. It verifies documents without informing the accused person or department. A decision is then taken on whether to further probe the case. All cases do not necessarily undergo a discreet inquiry

Open Inquiry | Once the discreet inquiry is over (or if it is eschewed), an open inquiry is set up. In this, files can be sought from a department and the accused persons asked to present their side. For officials, rules are clear. But for ministers, ambiguity persists on who takes a final call
Sanction For Prosecution | Once an open inquiry is okayed, the ACB can proceed with a full probe, registering an offence and filing of charges. But during this process, it needs a sanction for prosecution from the government

WINDING ROUTE | At present, the power to accord sanction for prosecution of a sitting minister lies only with the chief minister and the governor. A sanction file needs to travel first through the home department to the general administration department to secretaries of the departments concerned, to the chief secretary, and finally to the chief minister. There, however, exists no independent mechanism to assist the process.

Courtecy:
Sharad Vyas TNN http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2012/10/06&EntityId=Ar00106&AppName=1&ViewMode=HTML

Rs. 30,000 Crore Scam by Builder Hiranandani in Powai

HC lifts stay on ACB probe into Hiranandani project

Allowing the probe against Additional Chief Secretary, Health T C Benjamin and developer Niranjan Hiranandani to proceed, Bombay High Court on Tuesday vacated an interim stay granted on an order directing the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate allegations against the two in an alleged real estate scam.

Benjamin, former principal secretary in the Urban Development Department (UDD), is accused of not taking action against Hiranandani who allegedly built luxury flats in Powai in breach of a tripartite agreement between the builder, the state government and MMRDA.

A special court had ordered an investigation against Benjamin following a complaint by activist Santosh Daundkar who alleged that Benjamin had recommended that Hiranandani should be directed to pay a fine of only Rs 3 crore.

However, sources familiar with the case said that the UDD had earlier fixed the penalty on Hiranandani at Rs 89 crore. Subsequently, an arbitrator was appointed who reduced the penalty to Rs 3 crore. The state government has contested the reduced award of penalty on Hiranandani in the high court.

Reacting to the court’s decision, Benjamin said: “The state government is going to file an affidavit justifying its decision to impose the fine of Rs 89 crore on Hiranandani. The decision taken by me was in all transparency.”

In his appeal, Benjamin stated that there were no allegations of financial misappropriation against him. The court has adjourned the case for further hearing till October 5.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered an FIR against Benjamin and Hiranandani on July 5. On July 10, the bureaucrat moved the high court, which stayed the order of the special court and restrained the ACB from carrying out further investigation into Daundkar’s private complaint.

On Tuesday, Benjamin’s petition seeking the quashing of the private complaint was heard by a bench of Justices A S Oka and Sadhana Jadhav. His lawyer Satish Borulkar urged the court to extend the stay granted on the subordinate court’s order.

The judges, however, observed, “By granting ad interim relief, the writ court cannot interfere with the process of investigation. Hence, we decline to continue the ad interim relief granted earlier.”

Daundkar’s complaint, filed through lawyer Y P Singh, stated that in 1977, the state had announced the Powai Housing Development Scheme for economically weaker sections (EWS) that was to be implemented over 140 hectares in the villages of Powai, Kopri and Tirandaz. In 1986, the state signed an agreement with Hiranandani, and handed over 230 acres.

“However, the developer had flouted the tripartite agreement with the state and MMRDA which allowed him to develop 230 acres in Powai and construct affordable houses and hand over part to the state,” Daundkar alleged.

Daundkar pointed out that an ACB inquiry in 2009 revealed that only 76,120 sq m of the 5.74 lakh sq m of the built-up area sanctioned by the government was used by Hiranandani for low-cost housing, while the rest was converted into luxury apartments of 2,000 to 5,000 sq ft.

COURTESY:
Express news service : Fri Sep 28 2012, 01:09 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hc-lifts-stay-on-acb-probe-into-hiranandani-project/1008978/0