With the Supreme Court's order, some senior bureaucrats, whose names figured in the Sudhakar Joshi Committee report, have got a breather. Mr. Sudhakar Joshi headed the one-man committee formed in 2009 to look into the land scam, which has reportedly cost the State Government Rs. 300 crore.
The report submitted by him says 29 people are involved in the scam.
The district and sessions court has granted ad interim anticipatory bail to Atul Panse, the alleged main conspirator in 25 Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) certificate scam cases.
Panse, facing charges of forging ULC orders, has obtained anticipatory bail in 17 cases registered with the Swargate police and eight cases with the Shivajinagar police.
In the event of his arrest, he will be released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 15,000 each with solvent sureties of the like amount. He was directed to give attendance at the office of the criminal investigation department (CID), Pune, on every Wednesday and Sunday between 10 am and 11 am.
The CID is investigating 29 ULC scam cases as per the directions of the Bombay high court. Tahsildar Vivek Pralhad Salunkhe of the office of additional collector and the competent authority of the Pune Agglomeration is complainant in all the cases.
The CID had earlier arrested Panse, builder Sharad Kokate and real estate agent Sujay Chopade in connection with the scam on October 17. They were later released on interim bail.
The complaint against Panse and others were registered for allegedly forging ULC order no. 1471-CH dated December 9, 1998, in respect of 4,100 sq mt land at S.No. 126/1 at Wakad village in Mulshi taluka, for obtaining pecuniary gains and cheating the Pune Agglomeration and the state government.
The CID had also booked landowner Sindhu Suresh Chavan and real estate agent Ramesh Popat Giramkar in the scam.
Panse moved the sessions court as he was shown as an absconding suspect in several scam cases.
His lawyers Vidhyadhar Koshe and Vinod Shete told the court that the Swargate police had arrested Panse and others in a case no. 444/2005, wherein the alleged fake ULC orders were seized. A chargesheet filed against the suspects is pending before a magisterial court. The same ULC orders cannot be recovered from his client and others even if their custody was transferred in other scam cases.
Koshe argued that the Supreme Court has stayed the HC order passed in the public interest litigation filed by BJP state spokesperson Madhav Bhandari. The Supreme Court has stayed the HC order of transferring the investigations in the 29 cases to the CBI. The HC had reverted the probe to the CID.
Citing a Supreme Court rulingin Anupam Kulkarni's case , the lawyers pleaded to release Panse on interim anticipatory bail as he cannot be arrested again in the same crime.
Additional sessions judges S M Shinde and Vinay Joshi passed separate orders of granting interim bail to Panse in 25 ULC scam cases on October 21 and 25. The courts have issued notice to the CID, directing them to file their written statements for opposing Panse's bail pleas on the next date.
CID superintendent of police (economic offences wing) Amol Tambe told TOI on Friday that the agency will oppose the bail pleas when the courts reopen after Diwali vacations. "Panse's custody is required in other ULC scam cases. We had obtained a warrant from a magistrate court for transferring his custody in one of the cases, but we could not get his custody as he had obtained interim bail".
"The CID has invoked charges of destroying evidence under section 201 of the IPC against Panse and others," Tambe said, adding that, a proposal to appoint a special public prosecutor to conduct trial in ULC scam cases was sent to the state law and judiciary department at Mumbai for approval.
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