Pune land scam: Mumbai BJP chief moves Bombay high court

After learning his name has surfaced in the Pune urban land scam, BJP’s Mumbai unit president Raj Purohit on Thursday moved the Bombay high court claiming it is a conspiracy to malign his career.

He was minister of state (urban development department) during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule from 1995 to 1999.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari alleging that bogus documents were used and orders passed under the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act, 1976, to grab land in Pune.

The scam came to light in 2005 when the deputy collector’s office in Pune received a fabricated certificate under the act, declaring a plot in Wakad near Pune as non-surplus.

Purohit’s intervention application states that he was implicated in the report filed by retired IAS officer Sudhakar Joshi just to “save” bureaucrat Yogesh Mhase, who is officer on special duty to the home minister RR Patil.

Purohit’s advocate Niteen Pradhan brought the matter up before the judges, who declined to pass any order but kept it for hearing on February 21, when the PIL will be heard.

Pradhan told the court, “If my name figures in the report then I am entitled to receive a copy,” to which justice Marlapalle riposted, “When there is no mention (of your name), there is no question of giving you the report. We have not passed any order against you.”