Let CBI probe into role of Vilasrao Deshmukh in land sale: BJP

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya at a press meet on Monday demanded a CBI probe into the role of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and former revenue minister Narayan Rane, who he alleged were instrumental in handing over defence property in the Kandivli area to a private builder to build a tower.

Stating that the defence ministry had already handed the case over to the CBI to probe the role of civilians involved in the alleged scam, Somaiya said he had submitted a dossier of 1,135 pages to the investigating agency pointing to the involvement of Deshmukh and Rane. “The Kandivli scam is on the lines of Adarsh, where a building was built on defence land after bending all the rules in the book,” charged Somaiya.

While warning BMC chief Subodh Kumar against allowing any further development of the said towers, he reminded him that a court of inquiry was already probing the military personnel believed to be involved in selling off of the land.

Somaiya has claimed that the defence land in Kandivali was handed over to the private builders despite objections from state government officials and from the Defence Estates Officer in Mumbai due to pressure from higher-ups both in Mumbai and Delhi.

“When I asked for the land records in Mantralaya, I was told they have been lost. I got all the records from the defence ministry,” Somaiya said.