The high-profile former Mumbai Congress chief KrikpashankarSingh finds himself in trouble again. Already facing a probe by a Bombay HighCourt-appointed Special Investigation Team of the Mumbai Police for possessingassets disproportionate to his known sources of income, Singh now faces aland-grab case.
Singh is a former Minister of State for Home and is close toCongress high-command.
Last week, a division bench of the Bombay High Courtcomprising Justice V M Kanade and Justice P D Kode, ordered a magisterial probeagainst him while it was hearing the petition filed by one Tulsidas Nairalleging that Kripashankar and his son had usurped his properties worth croresand are now threatening to kill him if he doesn't evict his house in suburban Kalina.
According to Nair, Kripashankar usurped several of hisproperties in Kalina, Vakola and Bandra worth crores. “Since 2007, he(Kripashankar) has been sending his henchmen to my house in Kalina whoassaulted and threaten to kill me if I continue my litigation against him,”Nair said.
The Court after perusing certain photographs and documentssubmitted by Nair directed the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate to conduct andinquiry into the allegations and submit a report before the court within twoweeks. Apart from the magisterial probe, the bench has also directed the StateHuman Rights Commission to make inquiry into the case.
“If we notice that something is amiss then we will passstrictures against the concerned police and somebody will lose their job,” JusticeKanade said.
Last month, the statement of Singh and his son had beenrecorded by the SIT in the disproportionate case.
The SIT was set up by the Bombay High Court. Singh hadchallenged the order of the Bombay High Court in the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court hadin September granted eight weeks time to the SIT to complete its probe into thealleged amassing of wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income ofSingh. The court had asked Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh to head theteam replacing Arup Patnaik who was elevated to the rank of Director General ofPolice in August.
The Maharashtra government has already submitted to theSupreme Court two reports on the SIT probe in sealed covers about the allegedbenami assets of Singh and his family. The first report was filed on April 16 in compliance with the March 13order of the Supreme Court, which had asked the SIT to probe and collectdocumentary evidence regarding all movable and immovable properties of Singhand his family, including his wife, son, daughter-in-law and daughter and fileits report in a sealed cover.
Earlier this year, police teams team raided over 15locations in Mumbai and have taken custody of documents and papers found there.In an FIR registered at the Nirmal Nagar police station on Tuesday night, Singhwas booked under sections 120-b (conspiracy), 420 (cheating) 409 (criminalbreach of trust by a public servant), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery forcheating), 471 (using forged document) and 201 (disappearance of evidence) ofIPC and sections 13 (1) (d) and (e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Along with Singh, hiswife Malti Devi, son Narendra Mohan Singh and daughter-in-law Ankita are alsobeing investigated in the case.
The Bombay High Court has directed that the PIL filed bySanjay Tiwari be treated as an FIR and the report submitted by the stateAnti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on March 30, 2011 be treated as “completeinvestigation” with regard to enumeration of assets of Singh and his familymembers.
