The Free Press Journal

Now, CID to conduct probe against former bureaucrat Vishwas Patil in SRA scam

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Former Slum Rehabilita­tion Authority chief and wellknown writer Vishwas Patil who is facing graft and corruption charges will have to face a CID inquiry now. The Minister of State for Housing Developmen­t Ravindra Waikar informed the House that after CEO Vishwas Patil's retirement, an inquiry was conducted by a committee of four members and irregulari­ties in 33 files were found. He further informed that the committee's report would be placed before the House in a month and taking into account strong sentiments of members on this issue, a CID inquiry would be conducted in the entire SRA scam.

Waikar said, "Before Patil retired from SRA, he cleared 137 proposals, of which 33 were found to have irregulari­ties in the probe conducted by a four-member committee of SRA. Since members of the House raised doubts over an impartial probe being conducted by officials of the same authority, it would be appropriat­e for CID to investigat­e it. CID would also be asked to probe earlier cases of irregulari­ties by the officer."

But everyone in Assembly was shocked when the minister replied that the report file by the Kunte Committee, which was probing this case, had gone missing. He also informed the House that a complaint for missing report file has been filed in Samata Nagar police station. Meanwhile, former CM Prithviraj Chavan demanded that investigat­ion of this case should be handed over to CBI or ACB.

Vishwas Patil is facing graft charges against him when he was chief of Slum Rehabilita­tion Authority (SRA). Inquiry committee has pulled up Patil for giving

illegal permission­s to builders. After a series of serious allegation were levelled against Patil, CM initiated a detailed probe against him which was headed by Sitaram Kunte. A complaint was filed against Patil when he was suburban collector for giving one developer permission by tweaking rules. Later, it was found that in the same developer's company Patel's wife Chandrasen­a Patil was director.

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