21 November,2010 07:44 AM IST | | Vinod Kumar Menon
Hemant Patil says it's his duty to fight corruption. Following MiD DAY story, he will argue PIL questioning the allotment of Wadala flat to Maharashtra CM on his own
Pune based farmer Hemant Patil (40), who also runs an anti-corruption organisation, has taken on the onerous task of exposing corrupt ministers in the government.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan at a press conference
at Sahyadri Guest House in Malabar Hill on Saturday.
Pic/ Sayed Sameer Abedi
"I feel it is my duty as a citizen to expose corrupt ministers," he says.
His latest salvo is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan (CM), who was exposed by this reporter in MiD DAY ('5 per cent Unclean', dated November 12, 2010), highlighting the property he owns in Venus Apartment at Bhakti Park in Wadala.
Patil says he doesn't trust lawyers, and will fight the case on his own. "They fleece petitioners and make a fast buck. Cases are dragged on for years. I would rather fight my own cases in court."
Patil has only taken the assistance of lawyers to draft his petition since he is not familiar with legal jargon.
Claiming that he has formidable evidence against the CM, Patil has prepared a line of argument for the defence in which the following points are included:
1. How did Chavan fall in the weaker section category showing a monthly income of Rs 76,000 when he had not submitted any documents to establish the same?
2. Why did Chavan not disclose his property in the Affidavit
submitted to the Election Commission in 2009?
3. How did he get the flat allotted to him within three days from date
of application?
4. Why he did not submit income proof?
No stranger to taking up cudgels for the common man, Patil has also filed several cases against other ministers, including tainted former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, in the Mumbai High Court, for carrying out the abrupt transfer of IAS officers. The case is pending before the court. "Usually, IAS officers are transferred in the middle of every year, which is the norm. Chavan issued orders for the transfer of some in the third quarter of the year."
He has also filed a petition in Mumbai High Court to expose the undisclosed income of 65 corporators who have concealed their actual sources of income, and has demanded that a narco-analysis test be conducted on each of them.
Interestingly, Patil also filed a case against noted social activist Anna Hazare in the Shivajinagar District Court in Pune in 2005 for allegedly misusing Rs 2.6 lakh of public money from the Hind Swaraj Trust run by Hazare, for celebrating his 61st birthday.
Convinced about his cause, Patil says, "On Monday, I will represent my case before the Chief Justice of Bombay High court in the Prithviraj Chavan matter, since I want to produce the facts before the court. I do not belong to any political party and I am not scared of any threats. I am fighting for the common man's cause and there are no selfish motives behind my actions."
