An audio clip of senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar allegedly mediating a land deal involving underhand payments had emerged on Tuesday
Faced with increasing belligerence from the opposition, the state government blinked and removed senior bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar as the Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Roads Development Corporation (MSRDC).
An audio clip wherein Mopalwar was allegedly mediating a land deal involving underhand payments had come out on Tuesday. In the clip, a voice, purportedly that of Mopalwar, is heard seeking Rs 1 crore and making references to money to be paid in the state administrative headquarters of Mantralaya.
After the opposition took up the issue in the legislature, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the senior IAS officer would be shunted out from his position pending an inquiry.
As the Managing Director of the MSRDC, Mopalwar was in charge of implementing the Chief Minister's pet project—the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway. The around 700km Greenfield alignment is worth around Rs 46,000 crore and is being billed as a regional development project. It will connect Maharashtra's second capital of Nagpur to Bhiwandi near Mumbai.
"Regarding Mopalwar, I clearly told the house yesterday (Wednesday) that a probe will be conducted in a month. This will also cover a forensic investigation. Considering the feelings of the opposition in the house, Mopalwar will be divested of his charge till the investigation is completed," Fadnavis said, while speaking in the state legislative assembly on Thursday.
"Instead of going into whether officials like Mopalwar are good or bad, I would like to point out it was during your tenure that he got good postings," he said.
"Whether these allegations are true or not will come forth later, but these (charges) pertain to the same period," Fadnavis told opposition Congress and NCP members, stating he had evidence to prove this.
"These allegations do not pertain to the Samruddhi expressway. Even then, considering the sentiments of the house, I am announcing the decision to remove him from the post," he added.
Earlier, the opposition had demanded that Mopalwar be transferred out and Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, who is under a cloud over alleged irregularities in a slum redevelopment project at Tardeo and for returning a plot of land at Pantnagar in Ghatkopar to a builder, resign from the cabinet or be shown the door.
"Who is shielding him (Mopalwar)?" questioned leader of the opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (Congress) and said the Home Department, which is headed by Fadnavis, had written to the Director General of Police (DGP) in January 2017, seeking a crime branch probe into a complaint against Mopalwar by one Satish Mangle who alleged he was kidnapped and robbed by the bureaucrat.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) also wrote to the DGP in February based on a complaint by BJP MLA Anil Gote.
On February 20, 2017, the Centre's Department of Personnel and Training, wrote to the Maharashtra chief secretary, seeking the examination of a complaint regarding disproportionate assets filed by Gote against Mopalwar.
Earlier, opposition members trooped to the well of the house, shouted slogans and unfurled banners against Mopalwar and Mehta, forcing successive adjournments.
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 "Radheshyam Mopalwar and Prakash Mehta")
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