BMC road & desilting scams: HC refuses to transfer probe to ACB

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to transfer the investigations pertaining to the civic body’s road and de-silting scams to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The HC cited the ‘poor’ performance of the agency as a reason for not transferring the probe.

The observations were made by a division bench presided over by Justice Vidyasagar Kanade and Justice Pukhraj Bora while hearing a criminal Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vivekanand Gupta. Gupta, the general secretary of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Mumbai unit, has sought transferring of investigations in the multicrore scams to the ACB.

The road repair scam and the de-silting scam worth Rs 905 crore and Rs 150 crore respectively were unearthed last year.

While refusing to transfer the probe to ACB, Justice Kanade said, “We are not inclined to hand over the case to the anti-graft agency because of the past experiences. Once a case goes to ACB, nothing is done in it. The officers in the agency don’t do anything.”

“This can be also seen in the recent data issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The data shows that there is zero per cent rate of conviction. Even the agency’s former chairman is facing inquires,” Justice Kanade added.

During the course of hearing, the bench also pulled up the Maharashtra government for its failure to keep tabs on the expenditure to the civic body. The bench said, “Since you (government) provide funds to the civic body why don’t you monitor the spending of funds. We would also like to know if the state government is aware of the condition of roads and nullahs in the city.”

During the course of hearing, the Special Investigation Cell and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) both filed their respective reports, spelling out the progress in the probe.

After perusing the reports, the bench directed the agencies to expedite the probe and file the further progress reports.