CBI chargesheets IRB chief, 17 others for cheating bid

PUNE: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against Virendra Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director of IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, and 17 others for criminal conspiracy and attempting to cheat the state by grabbing massive tracts of government land at village Pimpaloli along the Pune-Mumbai expressway for a proposed integrated township project.
The case was initiated in 2009 by RTI activist Satish Shetty, who was murdered in January 2010.
The then sub-registrars of Lonavla and Maval talukas in Pune district and a lawyer are among the accused named in the chargesheet, which was filed in the court of special judge (CBI) A K Patil here. Mhaiskar and 11 others later appeared before the court, which granted them bail. The court also allowed Mhaiskar to travel abroad on conditions.
IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited is the holding company of the IRB Group. Its subsidiary, Ideal Road Builders Private Limited, was given the contract to maintain the expressway from August 2004 to 2019. Aryan Infrastructure Investments Private Limited is the other IRB subsidiary and real estate development arm which was involved in the purchase of land between 2007 and 2010. The sale deeds for some of these lands were later scrapped through a cancellation deed.
Shetty’s FIR with the Lonavla city police had mentioned charges under sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 469 and 471 (all relating to forgery of valuable security and use of forged documents for cheating) and 34 (common motive) of the IPC. The police had filed a closure report in the case which was accepted by a Vadgaon Maval magistrate in December 2012.
However, the CBI, while probing Shetty’s murder, decided to re-investigate the case and approached the Bombay high court. In November 2013, the HC set aside the magistrate’s order and directed the CBI to conduct further investigations.

In its chargesheet, the CBI has invoked sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 read with 511, which refers to attempt to commit an offence (cheating) punishable with imprisonment or other imprisonment, and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against public servants involved in the matter.
For the township project, the IRB group had purchased 559 acres land at Pimpaloli from January 17, 2007 to June 23, 2010 and another 794.76 acres in village Taje from January 17, 2007 to April 18, 2011, the chargesheet stated. Most of these lands had already been acquired in the name of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which built the expressway, between 1995 and 2000, it added.
Mhaiskar had authorised senior company official Deepak D Gadgil as the authorised signatory for these purchases, the chargesheet stated, and added that lawyer Ajit Kulkarni dishonestly submitted false title search reports relating to the lands, wrongfully and fraudulently mentioning that the name of the MSRDC executive engineer had been deleted from the 7/12 extracts of these lands.
Apart from the two sub-registrars, the remaining accused include the proprietor of a firm that acted as a conduit between IRB and farmers for the transactions and the middlemen or power of attorney holders who negotiated the sale with farmers, the chargesheet stated.
Mhaiskar’s lawyer Shrikant Shivade told TOI, “The chargesheet makes out absolutely no case. We will file an application seeking discharge from the case at the next hearing on January 20.”
IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, in a disclosure to the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange on Wednesday, which was signed by Mhaiskar, stated, “The company and its officials have been fully cooperating with the authorities during the course of the investigation and have provided all information and documents upon request.”
The disclosure further read, “We deny all allegations made against Mhasikar, Gadgil and the company in this matter and will seek appropriate remedies under the law.”
Lawyer Rohit Takavane, who appeared for two of the accused who were arrested earlier in the case by the Lonavla city police and later released on bail by the Vadgaon Maval court, said, “The CBI court allowed our plea to continue the bail granted to the two accused on the same terms as laid down by the magistrate.”