Accused Rajesh Rithe (left) and Fateh Mohammed Khatri (right) were produced in Thane court on Wednesday. They were remanded in seven-day ACB custody. (Source: Deepak Joshi)The Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau on Thursday arrested three more in connection with the Balganga irrigation scam, taking the total arrests to five in the case.
On August 25, the ACB registered an FIR against 11 accused under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 92 crore to the government through misconduct in connection with the construction of a dam over the Balganga river in Raigad. Six of the accused are government servants posted with the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation (KIDC) at the time, while five are partners in the FA Enterprises, the company that got the contract. The ACB had arrested two of the accused on the same day.
On Thursday, the ACB arrested Vijay Kasat, who was branch engineer with the KIDC in Raigad at the time of the alleged offence, along with Abid Khatri and Zahid Khatri, partners in FA Enterprises.
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“The arrested three were produced in court on Thursday and have been remanded to our custody till Friday. Further inquiries are underway,” said an ACB officer.
Meanwhile, further inquiries into the alleged scam as well as interrogation of Rajesh Rithe and Nisar Khatri, who were arrested earlier, have revealed that the paperwork for the contract given to FA Enterprises in 2006 was actually prepared in 2012, ACB officials said.
The ACB has found out that Nisar Khatri, after receiving funds sanctioned by the state government for the project, sponsored several trips by air within the country as well as abroad for some irrigation department officials, said sources.
“An examination of Nisar’s bank accounts and corroborative inquiries established that these trips were paid for by Nisar. Some of these are among the six government servants booked in the case, and we are conducting further inquiries in connection with the other names that have come to light,” a senior ACB officer said. Kasat and Nisar had been remanded in judicial custody till September 16, ACB officials added.