BJP leaders in note exchange scam after demonetisation: Kapil Sibal

Mateen Hafeez / TNN

TNN | Apr 28, 2019, 08.26 AM IST

 

 

 

 

 

MUMBAI: Congress leader and former law minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday alleged that a few government officials and some politicians of the rulingparty were involved in a money exchange scam post the demonetisation deadline. Sibal claimed that some sting operation videos showed those involved in the money exchange scam had asked for a commission of 15 to 40 per cent to exchange old notes with new ones.

"If our government comes to power, we will investigate this," he said, while screening around seven short videos at a press conference.

In these videos, some persons are seen talking about exchanging notes and their association with politicians. One sting video showed a man-whom Sibal identified as Rahul Retharekar-talking to the sting reporter and claiming he could exchange old notes and that there was a huge godown in Gujarat that had new notes. Retharekar, identified as a Field Assistant working for the Cabinet Secretariat, could also be seen in the sting video saying officials from 26 departments were involved in note exchange.

"This man was dismissed by the government for his suspected involvement in the money exchange case. However, no inquiry was done to find out about all those involved in it," said Sibal.

Citing a video, Sibal added that officials of a private bank in Mumbai were also connected to the scam."Ever since I spoke about these sting videos, the government has been silent," he added.

 

 

The Times of India, April 28, 2019

 

 

Postal scam: Trio used money to buy property

Mateen Hafeez / TNN

 Apr 27, 2019, 07.10 AM IST

 

 

 

MUMBAI: The city Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has filed a chargesheet in the Rs 23-crore postal investment scam.
The chargesheet says the accused, a senior citizen couple and their daughter, used the funds of more than 1,800 investors to buy flats, bungalows and a chemical factory in various parts of the state and in Goa.

The trio was arrested in January for allegedly cheating investors. The accused, all authorised agents of Mahim post office, promised the depositors 102% returns on their investment in six years.

Those chargesheeted include Ramesh Bhatt, 68, his wife Yogita, 65, and their daughter, Bhumika Mohire, 39. The 4,908-page chargesheet lists 68 persons as witnesses.

An officer, who is part of the probe, said, "Bhatt was employed with a private firm till 2000 and later became a post office agent. He had thousands of clients."

Police said Asha Mandlik, 52, one of the depositors, had given Bhatt Rs 26 lakh in 2009 to be invested for six years. Another victim, a bank employee, had deposited Rs 38 lakh in recurring deposit and MIS schemes through Bhatt. In many cases, he never deposited the money and, in some cases, he deposited partial amounts. Some depositors got suspicious when they did not get their money on maturity.

While Bhatt is in Taloja jail, his wife and daughter are in Byculla Women's Prison.


The Times of India, Mumbai
April 27, 2019

Push to put Dawood’s Khed assets on block

Mateen.Hafeez@timesgroup.com 

 

Mumbai: Barely two weeks after underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar’s flat was auctioned for Rs 1.8 crore here, the anti-smuggling agency wants to put the remaining 14 properties in the name of Haseena and her mother in their native town, Mumbke, a village in Khed in Ratnagiri district, on the block.

The properties include a ground- plus-two-storey bungalow where Dawood was a frequent visitor and a plot allocated for a petrol pump (in the name of Haseena). The authorities under the Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Manipulator’s Act (Safema) have written to the district valuation officer (DVO) in Pune to evaluate the price of the 14 properties. All the properties registered in the name of Dawood’s family are said to have been bought with proceeds of crimes.

While two properties in Khed are registered under Haseena’s name, the remaining are in the name of Dawood’s mother Amina Bi. The bungalow land was bought by Dawood’s father, Ibrahim Hasan Kaskar, who retired as head constable from Mumbai crime branch. Dawood and his siblings, who stayed in Mumbai’s Pakmodia Street, used to visit the bungalow, built in the mid-80s, frequently and stay for weeks. It has been lying vacant since 1993, when most of the Dawood family members fled India after the serial blasts killed 257 in the city. Dawood had left in the late 80s.

In 2016, Mumbke’s village panchayat had declared the bungalow a dilapidated structure. There was a proposal to turn it into a school for village children but it didn’t work out due to the shaky structure. It has become quite notorious, and people take selfies with the bungalow, said a source.

Safema sources said they want the auction this year and have sped up the process. After evaluation, a detailed report will be sent to them. The auction will be advertised in newspapers. “We still don’t know the total value of these properties. It will be clear once we get the report,” said an officer.

After the properties were confiscated under Safema, show cause notices were issued and the Dawood family challenged the confiscation all the way up to the Supreme Court, but lost the cases. “The Dawood family could not prove before the courts that the money used to buy these properties were earned through legal means,” said an officer.

The authorities welcomed the participation of several bidders for the Dawood properties. “Earlier, people were scared. Now they are coming forward and it’s a sign that the fear factor is vanishing,” said a source.

The Times of India, April 23, 2019

Mumbai: Pellet from shooting practice at maidan almost blinds man

Mateen Hafeez & Malathy Iyer

TNN | Apr 3, 2019, 05.22 AM IST

 

 

MUMBAI: An illegal shooting practice conducted by a trainer at Azad Maidan left a pedestrian’s vision in his left eye “severely impaired” when a pellet pierced it on February 16.

Ghatkopar resident Manoj (name changed on request), 27, was crossing the maidan to reach CSMT at 12.40 pm when he felt a stinging pain and sat down. Passersby who came to his help pointed out that his eye was bleeding.

Manoj, who works as a peon in a shipping firm in Navi Mumbai, is receiving treatment and is likely to undergo a second retinal repair surgery on Wednesday if his colleagues can raise Rs 2 lakh. Doctors said at the moment he can see only up to 1metre with the injured eye.

The pellet — smaller than a pea at 8mm — came from a shooting camp organised for eight students from a Churchgate college by the Pune-based Indian Military Training Centre. The trainer had put a plastic curtain near the Bombay Gymkhana-end of the maidan, but the pellet pierced it and struck Manoj’s eye on the third and last day of training.

Senior police officials told TOI that shooting training cannot be carried out in the open and must be done in designated ranges. An official of the Maharashtra Rifle Association said: “Even to set up a temporary range in an open area, one needs licence and to ensure the safety of everybody.”

No arrests have been made in the case, which was registered at Azad Maidan police station a week later on February 24, but the Pune training centre’s owner, Advait Deshpande, has been booked (see box). The trainer, a 22-year-old who studies in a Panvel college, has not been booked. He had done an NCC course in his school days. The students have not been named in the FIR.

Deshpande, who was summoned by the police, said his firm is registered and he has been imparting training for “self-defence” for seven years in Pune. This was his first assignment in Mumbai. He would charge Rs 1,500 per student for four sessions.

Manoj’s vision could improve after the second surgery, but doctors said vision rarely returns to normal after retinal tear surgeries. “During the first operation on the day after the incident, we found the pellet ‘lodged’ in his retina,” said Dr S Natrajan of Aditya Jyot Hospital, Wadala. It was repaired using laser, but during a follow-up visit on March 29, doctors found the lower end of the retina was detached.


The Times of India, April 3, 2019

Mumbai: Another BMC engineer held for CSMT FOB crash

Mateen Hafeez & Richa Pinto

TNN | Apr 3, 2019, 05.31 AM IST

 

 

MUMBAI: Police on Tuesday arrested Anil Patil (53), a suspended civic executive engineer, as part of its probe into the collapse of Himalaya foot overbridge (FOB) on March 14, which killed six persons and injured 31.

This is the second arrest of a civic official in the case. On Monday, police had arrested assistant engineer Sandeep Kakulte (44). Public prosecutor Rajan Suryavanshi, while seeking Kakulte’s custody on Tuesday, told the court that he did not visit the FOB during its repairs, maintenance and while a non-destructive test was conducted in the last five years.

“Patil had to supervise the work but he did not,” said a senior police officer. Patil is the third person to be arrested by Azad Maidan police. Earlier, police had arrested Neraj Kumar Desai (48), director of an audit firm, Prof D D Desai’s Associates Engineering Consultants. The firm had carried out the bridge’s structural audit and reported it was fit. Patil was appointed in the bridges department in September 2014 and worked there till December 2018. He was suspended along with Kakulte on March 15, a day after the bridge crash.

Kakulte, a civil engineer, joined BMC in 2005 as a sub-engineer, and worked in the bridges, traffic and roads department until a separate unit for bridges was formed in 2013. Kakulte, who draws around Rs75,000 a month, told court, “I am handicapped and come to office from Virar. I have been requesting seniors to shift me to some other department, but they didn’t. I don’t even have a lawyer.” The court, while remanding him to police custody, told him to engage a lawyer.

Suryavanshi told court, “Kakulte was responsible for visiting sites during repairs, non-destructive tests and maintenance, monitoring work and submitting a report. But he never visited the site or submitted a report. It was his duty to note down changes the auditor or others involved in the work suggested. As per BMC records, he was not present at any site even once.” The court remanded Kakulte to police custody till April 5.

A day after the crash, a preliminary BMC inquiry report nailed the structural auditor, two civic engineers and the contractor who carried out repairs around 2013. Two retired civic bridges department officers, one of who is a former chief engineer, was named too and a full-fledged departmental inquiry was ordered. Kakulte was placed under immediate suspension as he was supervising repairs of the bridge in 2013-14 and was held responsible. The firm that carried out structural repairs in 2013 had been pulled up as its workmanship was not up to the mark and was issued show-cause notices, while civic staff were blamed for lack of supervision.

The prosecutor said police need to establish if Desai had asked Kakulte to do work related to the bridge which he did not note or if he noted, then where were the documents, since he had not submitted any to his office.


The Times of India, April 3, 2019

Nagpada flat owned by Dawood’s sister auctioned for Rs 1.8 crore

Mateen Hafeez I TNN 

Apr 2, 2019, 04.30 AM IST

MUMBAI: A 600 sq ft flat belonging to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar in Nagpada was sold for Rs 1.8 crore in a public auction at the Y B Chavan auditorium in south Mumbai on Monday. This is the fifth property allegedly earned through proceeds of Dawood’s crime that has been auctioned in the last two years.

The flat occupying the first floor of the eight-storey Gordon Hall Apartments near the Nagpada police station was attached under the Smugglers And Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture Of Property) Act, 1976 (Safema), and was lying vacant for a couple of months since Parkar’s children had shifted. It’s the same building where Dawood’s younger brother, Iqbal Kaskar, was arrested on extortion charges by the Thane anti-extortion cell in September 2017.

Bidders for the flat were asked to deposit Rs 25 lakh as earnest money and taken for an inspection on March 25. The one who won submitted his bid in a sealed envelope, and the authorities refused to share his name citing safety concerns.

The flat had come under the scanner after Dawood decamped, and was forfeited. Parkar challenged it, but lost at every forum till the Supreme Court. She had failed to prove that the flat was purchased with money earned through legal sources. Her family had to vacate the flat after the SC order.

Parkar had shifted to the Gordon Hall flat after her husband Ismail was shot dead in the mid-80s by rival Arun Gawli’s gang. In 1995, Dawood avenged Ismail’s death by getting the suspects shot inside JJ Hospital. Parkar’s older son, Danish, met with an accident and died in 2007. She died in the flat when she was 55 after a heart attack on June 7, 2014.

“We have auctioned five different properties under Safema on Monday, including this flat. The base price for this 600 sq ft carpet area flat was 1.7 crore. Overall, we got around 20 to 25 bidders for all the five properties. The highest bid for this flat was Rs 1.8 crore and an individual won the bid,” said Hari Govind Singh, Competent Authority for Safema (Western Zone).

The flat, registered in Parkar’s name, is believed to be the place from where she ran her rackets. She was arrested in 2005 for extorting Rs 1 crore from a real estate agent, Vinod Avlani. A Delhi-based lawyer, Bhupendra Bhardwaj, who has been applying to buy Dawood properties for two years, failed to make it this time too.

The Times of India, April 2, 2019