Minister quits over scam

Deokar spared from arrest in Jalgaon housing scandal

The scam-tainted Maharashtra Minister of State for Transport, Gulabrao Deokar, yesterday resigned from his post, even as the Supreme Court gave him a reprieve and spared him the possibility of being arrested in the Jalgaon low-cost housing scandal until August 21.

A day after the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court cancelled Deokar’s bail in the low-cost housing scam case, the country’s apex court stayed the high court’s order till August 21.

The implication of the Supreme Court’s order is that Deokar will not be arrested till August 21.

Hearing a special leave petition filed by Deokar of the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) against the high court’s order, the Supreme Court directed the Maharashtra government to file its say in the matter and fixed the matter for further hearing till August 21.

However, earlier in the day, Deokar submitted his resignation from the ministerial post to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, requesting the latter to forward the same to Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayana.

Deokar’s resignation

was in line with a directive that he had received from his party leadership.

Following the cancellation of his bail by the Bombay High Court, State NCP president Madhukar Pichhad had on Monday asked Deokar to put in his papers, ahead of his imminent arrest in the 1997 Jalgaon housing scam case.

Deokar, who is one of the 90 accused in the Jalgaon low-cost housing scam case, was earlier arrested on May 21. However, a local court had granted him bail in the case on a cash surety of Rs50,000 (Dh3,300).

Later, some of his political detractors, including one Premanand Jadhav, had challenged the bail granted the bail in the case. The high court, however, cancelled his bail on Monday.

Conspiracy

The temporary reprieve that he has received from the apex court notwithstanding, Deokar faces charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption in the scam involving fraud in the construction of 11,000 low cost houses.

Apart from Deokar, the other prominent person allegedly involved in the scam is senior Shiv Sena leader and former State minister Suresh Jain.

Jain was arrested on March 10, while he was trying to flee from his home town of Jalgaon in north Maharashtra to the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh.