State-appointed committee had found him guilty of faking ration cards.
The Bandra police were pulled up by the Bombay high court on Monday for not registering a first information report (FIR) against the builder and chief promoter of the Pali-Pereirawadi redevelopment project in Bandra. The scheme, one of the biggest in recent times, has been in the news for all the wrong reasons since June 2008.
A division bench of justices Ranjana Desai and Mridula Bhatkar came down heavily on Bandra police while hearing a criminal writ petition filed by 44 residents who are demanding that an FIR be lodged against builder-developer Dilip Bobde-Patil and chief promoter Cyril Macwan.
The petitioners’ counsel, Mihir Desai, and advocate Rebecca Gonsalves informed the court that although a high power committee (HPC) had found the developer-builder and the chief promoter guilty of submitting fake ration cards, the investigating officer has not filed an FIR against them.
According to a petition by Poonam Lalji Parmar and 43 other residents, an HPC appointed by the state government to scrutinise the scheme, which is being implemented by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), had found the duo guilty. As per the HPC report, the local tehsildar had registered an FIR against the duo. However, the police, in October 2008, lodged FIRs only against 12 people for submitting fake rationing cards. “Even out of those twelve, three were found fictitious,” said the petition. “Why have they [the builder and the promoter] been excluded? Why has the police let off most culprits when the HPC has recommended that action be taken against them?” questioned justice Desai.
The court has now summoned the investigating officer on Wednesday. “Ask the concerned officer to be in court with the complete record. We need to check the entire record to see why the duo have been left out by the police,” remarked the judges.
The residents of the 125-year-old colony have been making rounds of the high court since June 2008, when a portion of the colony was demolished, leaving 21 families homeless. The redevelopment has not yet begun as the issue is pending in the court.
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