‘Illegal’ permissions for Lavasa project: Plea in HC seeking CBI probe against Sharad Pawar, Sule & Ajit

Lawyer Nanasaheb Jadhav has recently moved the Bombay High Court seeking directions to the CBI to register a case against the Maharashtra government, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his daughter and MP Supriya Sule and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Ajit Pawar, as well as others, over alleged illegal permissions given to a project to build a private hill station at Lavasa in Pune district.

In February, then Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish S Kulkarni had refused to interfere in an earlier PIL filed by Jadhav, seeking to declare the special permissions granted to the project as “illegal”. However, it observed “personal interest” in the project by Sharad Pawar and Sule as well as “exertion of influence and clout” by them in the project. It had said that Ajit Pawar, who was then the state irrigation minister, “failed to disclose the direct or indirect interest and was found to be remiss in his duty only to that extent”.

In his fresh criminal PIL, Jadhav said he had filed a complaint to the Pune Police commissioner on December 26, 2018, who forwarded the complaint to the Pune Rural Police. Jadhav added that on May 2, this year, when he filed an RTI application seeking information from the police about the action taken on his complaint, he learnt that no FIR has been registered.

On May 25, he sent the same complaint to the Pune Rural SP under Section 154 (providing information in cognizable cases) of the CrPC, but no action was taken, Jadhav alleged. Claiming that since the complaint involved big politicians and officers, the police refused to register an FIR, Jadhav sought a CBI probe. He also sought a status report of the investigation from time to time.

The plea is likely to be mentioned before the court next week.