Maharashtra water resources minister Sunil Tatkare is under fire with opposition parties alleging he's involved in a multi-crore land scam.
Turning the heat on Maharashtra water resources minister Sunil Tatkare for his alleged involvement in a land scam worth over Rs 25,000 crore, the BJP today demanded a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigating Team.u00a0
BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya alleged that the scam, involving acquisition of large tracts of land by the senior NCP leader's family and associates, was to the tune of over Rs 25,000 crore wherein black money was parked through 1000 odd companies.
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"We have so far been able to unearth investment of benami amount of Rs 10,230 crore in 500 companies (which bought land). This is the biggest land scam in the country and is not restricted to Tatkare alone," Somaiya told reporters.
Maharashtra Water Resources Minister Sunil Tatkare faces allegations of being involved in a land scam. File Pic
The BJP leader alleged that the scam involved more than 10,000 acres spread across Navi Mumbai and Sindhudurg where land belonging to farmers and government was illegally acquired and passed on to others. Somaiya said layers of benami companies were created to hide the real investors.
"There is involvement of top leaders in Delhi, bureaucrats and corporates," he alleged.
Somaiya alleged that two firms Multi Venture and Swaramrut owned by Tatkare's son Aniket had 46 per cent holding in Vinamra Universal Traders Pvt Ltd. and Vinamra held 45.6 per cent in the two companies. These companies held huge tracts of land, he said, adding though Vinamra's share capital was only Rs one lakh, it had unsecured loan of over Rs 3,592 crore.
Tatkare, who had earlier denied the allegations, said his son's companies had nothing to do with Vinamra.
Meanwhile, a Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking CBI inquiry against Tatkare and his family for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.
According to the PIL filed by Rajendra Phance, general secretary of Thane-based political party Dhrmarajya Paksha, Tatkare during his tenure as cabinet minister has acquired several properties in Raigad district.
"Although Tatkare is not directly involved, in such matters modus operandi is amassing wealth in the names of relatives. Tatkare s son Aniket, daughter Aditi and daughter-in-law Vedanti have several plots of land in their name in Raigad district which could not have been purchased without the favour of Tatkare," the PIL says.
The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing on Thursday, seeks Tatkare's removal from the cabinet and a CBI probe.
The petition says that Tatkare’s son, daughter and daughter-in-law have floated over 25 private companies through which transactions are shown to have been made.
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