‘BJP MLA forged docus of senior bureaucrat’
Service co-op society of agriculturists registered with fake papers: Sena leader
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Kisan Kathore forged documents of senior bureaucrat R A Rajeev for registration of Sagav Vividh Karyakari Seva Sahakari Society (multi-purpose service cooperative society) in Thane district, according to Shiv Sena leader Prabhakar Patil, who had filed a query under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. Bureaucrat Rajeev has confirmed his consent was not taken before making him a member of the society and has said the signature by his name in registration documents is not his. Kathore represents the Badlapur-Murbad assembly constituency.
Kathore has refuted the charges of Ulhasnagar Agriculture Market Produce Committee director Patil and claimed Rajeev had signed proposal documents in 2006. "Rajeev has agricultural land at Sagav village and hence he was made member of the society in 2006. He had signed the documents. But now, he may have forgotten about it," Kathore claimed. However, Rajeev has confirmed to The Free Press Journal via SMS, “I am not member. I have never consented.”
Patil said, “The joint registrar initially refused to register the society, but did so in 2011, on the orders of the then minister of state. During these years, Rajeev did not attend any meeting of the society and had informed joint registrar that he was not a member of the society. After that, the society deleted his name from the members' list”.
At a general body meeting of farmers and agriculturists on May 15, 2006, it was decided to form the Sagav VKSSS, Taluka Ambernath, in Thane district. Kisan Kathore, then a legislator from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), had been elected chief promoter.
The society prepared a list of 73 members, with the name of R A Rajeev at number 7. The proposal to register the society was rejected by the divisional joint registrar of the Konkan division on the grounds that the then commissioner (cooperative) had prohibited the registration
Kathore has refuted the charges of Ulhasnagar Agriculture Market Produce Committee director Patil and claimed Rajeev had signed proposal documents in 2006
of any new 'seva' society on May 5, 2009. But the then minister of state for cooperation had allowed Kathore to register the society though his order dated August 6, 2011. Kathore, as chief promoter of the society, registered the society, signed documents and submitted the annual income of every promoter and member of the society. Patil, who is also the director of the Ulhasnagar APMC, said despite Rajeev being an Indian Administrative Officer (IAS), he has been shown as one of the eleven working committee members, with an affidavit showing his annual income as Rs 55,000 and his fake signature.
The society is functional, active and has disbursed lakhs of rupees in loans to members. Patil has claimed these members have benefited from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Shetkari Sanman Yojana loan waiver scheme. When Patil approached the joint commissioner of cooperative department seeking de-registration of the society as it is based on fake documents and sent notices to each member through his lawyer, Rajeev sent an email on February 2, 2017, denying his signature and informed the joint registrar that his consent was not taken before making him joint promoter of the Sagav society. He stated he had not signed the documents and his signature was fake.
Patil said Kathore and his team had forged the signatures of four dead people -Tanaji Shelar, Jijabai Dhumal, Ambo Bhoir and Ramu Dohale — and included them as members of the society. Other members of the society include Bhaskar Kathore (nephew of MLA Kathore), employed with the KalyanDombivli Municipal Corporation with an income of Rs 55,000, Vasant Borhade, clerk at Thane District Cooperative bank at Kulgaon branch, with an income of Rs 26,000, Luis Vaity, a trader with an income of Rs 30,000 and another trader, Pankaj Kanohi, with annual income of Rs 32000. Patil demanded an independent probe be initiated against Kathore as he has forged documents and cheated people, the government as well as a senior bureaucrat.