The Dapoli police in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri on Tuesday registered a cheating case against MLC Anil Parab, a leader from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, and two others in connection with the alleged Dapoli resort fraud case. The FIR was registered based on a complaint filed by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who has been alleging several irregularities in the construction of Sai Resort in Dapoli, which as per his claim, is owned by Parab, a former minister, and Sadanand Kadam. Parab has indulged in a Rs 10 crore scam, Somaiya has alleged. Parab, who has already been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the resort case, has refuted the allegations, saying the resort is owned by Kadam. The present FIR has been registered against Parab, former Murud village sarpanch Suresh Tupe and then Gram Sevak Anant Koli under sections 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR says that Parab, along with the others, made false entries in the Murud village Gram Panchayat official records with regard to the taxation of the land where the resort is built. According to the FIR, in September 2021, Somaiya had filed a complaint with the upper chief secretary of the revenue and forest department alleging that despite the fact that no construction work was carried out on a piece of land in Murud village, wrong or false entries were made about the construction in the panchayat, and based on this, tax was levied and collected. The FIR states that during the inquiry it was found that in a monthly meeting of the Murud village panchayat held in July 2019, a tax was imposed on the said property (Sai Resort) and it was noted in the records. Gram Panchayat officials were supposed to visit the site, ensure the completion of the structure and then carry out tax levy and collection proceedings. However, on detailed scrutiny of the available documents, it did not appear that any on-site tax collection as per rules was conducted and no such written evidence is available with the Gram Panchayat, the FIR says. The FIR further points out that Somaiya’s evidence of Google Earth images of the property/site between March 2019 and November 2020 revealed that the construction was not completed on the said property and that prior to completion itself, taxation proceedings were carried out. The Murud Gram Panchayat, the FIR alleges, defrauded the government by abusing its powers under Section 124 of the Maharashtra Gram Panchayat Act, 1960. The FIR also accuses Parab of requesting that property tax be levied on the property in June 2019. A year later, in June 2020, the FIR says, Parab also sought an electricity connection, allegedly pretending that the structure was complete even though it was not. “The scrutiny has clearly shown that during the period of June 2019 and November 2019, Parab as an owner of the property (Sai Resort) applied for levying tax on the property which was not even completed and without following the due procedure of visiting the site and ensuring the completion of the building, the Gram Panchayat levied and collected relevant taxes,” a police official said. “Parab pretended that construction of the structure was completed even though it was not and applied for the electricity connection, and in turn, cheated the government,” the official added.
