A magistrate court on Thursday accepted the closure report filed by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and closed the case against Shiv Sena leader Ravindra Waikar, his wife Manisha, and four close associates. In June, Waikar who joined Eknath Shinde fraction in the run up to the Lok Sabha election, won Mumbai’s North West parliamentary seat by a narrow margin of 48 votes, following which EOW filed a closure report in a case registered against him and his associates, In the C-summary report filed in the court, investigators alleged that the complaint, filed on behalf of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), was based on 'incomplete information and misunderstanding.' The C-summary report is filed in cases where the FIR is found to be based on a mistake of fact. The complainant was summoned and the investigating officer was heard on the reasons to file a closure report after which the court accepted the C-Summary report. According to the police officials, the sitting MP was being probed in connection with the construction of a luxury hotel in Jogeshwari in violation of his agreement with the BMC. "After recording the statements of the complaining authorities and the accused parties and also after scrutinising BMC's documents, it appears that the issue of Waikar and other accused obtaining permission to construct the hotel under Development Control and Promotion Regulation, is not criminal in nature as it is rather an administrative complaint," said an official adding, "It is still not clear whether the people accused in the case have received any benefits." Waikar, his wife Manisha, business partners Aasoo Nehlanai, Raj Lalchandani and Prithpal Bindra, and architect Arun Dubey were booked for criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy on the complaint filed by BMC sub-engineer Santosh Mandavkar. The case was initially registered at Azad Maidan police station, following which the investigation was transferred to the Economic Offences Wing. According to the FIR, Waikar had entered into a contract with the BMC after getting permission to run a sports facility at the plot in Jogeshwari. The permission was granted when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power. In early 2023, a notice was issued to him for using a plot of land--reserved for a public garden--to construct a hotel. The municipal corporation had also accused Waikar of concealing information on the plot which was reserved for public space, while seeking permission to construct a hotel.
