Expensive jewellery, a pen worth Rs 70,000, iPhone were bought by the accused with bribe amount; bribe collection was done through codes; cash delivery was done through middlemen called “postman”. These were among the findings in the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against 18 persons, including two former senior officials of the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC), over the illegal construction of 41 residential and commercial buildings in the Vasai-Virar region, including on government land. The agency filed the chargesheet on October 10 against Anilkumar Pawar, the former IAS officer, who was the commissioner of the VVCMC; his wife Bharti; suspended official, the former deputy director of town planning, Y S Reddy; Sitaram Gupta, a former corporator of the local party, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi; and others — chartered accountants, architects, builders, real estate agents, brokers, who allegedly gave bribes, or aided in bribe collection. The ED, probing alleged bribes for approvals given for illegal construction, has claimed that the total proceeds of crime amount to Rs 300.92 crore of which Rs 169 crore is allegedly linked to Pawar. “Investigation has revealed that cash generated out of illegal gratification collected by Mr Anil Pawar and Mr Y S Reddy was utilised for personal gains and luxury purchases. WhatsApp chats between them establish that Mr Reddy had purchased expensive sarees, gold-studded as well as other precious jewellery for Mr Pawar’s family…These facts collectively demonstrate that the bribe amount was diverted towards the acquisition of costly personal articles and luxury goods…” the ED chargesheet claims. It has screenshots of the alleged chats, including photographs of the jewellery bought, a pen worth Rs 70,000 approved for buying by Reddy and other expenses. The chargesheet has statements of middlemen and others, claiming that Reddy also spent the proceeds of crime on hotel stays, cricket matches, concert tickets, buying foreign currencies and iPhones. During the search of his residence, jewellery and gold bars to the tune of Rs 23 crore were seized along with cash of Rs 8.20 crore, disproportionate to his legal source. The ED claimed that the sides of the gold bricks were rubbed off to hide the seller and the origin. “In his own chat with a developer, Mr. YS Reddy has mentioned that he has a monthly expense of Rs 5 lakh, which increases to Rs 1 Crore on certain occasions like Diwali,” the ED chargesheet alleges. The ED said that while many chats on discussions about bribes were deleted, it has recovered some of the tables, and handwritten diaries of the accused. “Cash was collected from the architects, liasioners or developers directly and usable amounts were kept for general usage, however, bigger amounts were directly moved away from the direct proximity of the officials. It was handed to close family members, personal aides, trusted chartered accountants and selected corporation staff. Sometimes it was dropped at fixed meeting points instead of homes or offices,” the ED chargesheet says. A Rs 10 note was used as a token for delivery authentication of the one paying the bribe and the one receiving the cash. It adds that codes like “Sr No.” or the digit “5”, “documents” were used to refer to money or cash amounts, and “C” was code for commissioner, “D” for deputy director and “commercial” meant the bribe component for a pending approval. The ED has claimed that bribe amounts were calculated as per the stage of the building construction and a fixed rate, ranging from Rs 25-50 per square feet for the commissioner, with slabs per department. In one of the tables, the ED claims it can be seen that Pawar earned Rs 9.83 crore for a certain period in bribes for approvals, of which some amount was collected by Chartered Accountant, Narendra Jain, referred to in the table as “postman” and his wife, Bharti Pawar, referred to as “madam”, or through his driver. The delivery of the cash was done in various places including Pawar’s bungalow, usually on Friday, before he left for his hometown in Nashik or his residence in Pune, the ED has claimed referring to Reddy’s statement. The ED claims that cash was also delivered through Pawar’s and his wife’s relatives, who then formed various entities and bought properties. The ED alleges that the bribe money was routed through entities like real estate firms, warehousing chains or consultancy services, to show them as untainted, for instance, Bharti in her statement to the ED has said that she receives monthly salary from four firms. When questioned about one of the firms, Janardhan Agro, which sells agricultural products, she failed to provide rates of general products, the ED claimed. The ED said that the probe shows that while her brother who works there earns a monthly salary of Rs 50,000, Bharti is shown to be getting an annual salary of Rs 20-25 lakh. “Similarly, in M/s Shrutika Enterprises, where Bharti Pawar is a partner, she invested Rs 38.5 lakh but received Rs 98 lakh within just three years, despite the firm having loans of Rs 35 lakh and total liabilities exceeding Rs1.5 crore. The firm's profit is only around Rs. 25 lakh annually, yet Bharti Pawar and others show much higher income, suggesting that the extra money represents cash bribes being converted into legitimate income through these businesses,” the ED claimed. In a statement after his arrest, Pawar’s lawyers in a statement had said the commissioners of the earlier period and the CIDCO authorities have not been investigated by the ED, calling it “cherry picking”. The statement also said that the companies belonging to the relatives of Pawar were formed between 1997 to 2019, before his posting as a commissioner and that those companies are regularly audited and pay taxes.
