ACB seeks action against ex-minister for disposing off properties under attachment

The properties of the five-term MLA from Deolali assembly constituency were attached in the disproportionate assets case under orders of the Small Causes Court in Mumbai in January 2000

MUMBAI: A special court on Wednesday refused to entertain a plea filed by the Maharashtra Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), seeking action against former minister Babanrao Gholap and his wife, Shashikala, for having sold 16 properties which were under attachment.

ACB seeks action against ex-minister for disposing off properties under attachment

Special judge Satyanarayan Navander refused to entertain the plea, saying the disproportionate assets case against Gholap and his wife, under which the properties were attached, had been disposed off way back in March 2014. The court asked the ACB to approach the Bombay High Court, where the Gholaps’ appeals against their conviction and three-year jail term are pending.

The properties of the five-term MLA from Deolali assembly constituency were attached in the disproportionate assets case under orders of the Small Causes Court in Mumbai in January 2000.

The ACB’s plea stated that before filing of the charge sheet, certain properties of the Gholaps were attached as per the proposal moved to the government in December 1999. On January 15, 2000, a formal order of attachment was passed by the small causes court, which had the jurisdiction to deal with attachment cases at the time.

The ACB later found that 16 of the attached properties had been disposed of by the former minister and his wife between July 21, 2012 and November 10, 2015. Therefore, a plea was moved in 2019, seeking action against the couple for breach of attachment orders.

Gholap and his wife were prosecuted on a complaint filed in 1999, by a certain Milind Yavatkar, claiming they had amassed properties disproportionate to their known sources of income. Acting on the complaint, the special court had ordered the ACB to conduct an investigation after which the ACB registered a case in 2001. Later, the agency filed a charge sheet against the Gholaps, claiming the minister had amassed assets which were 194% more than his known sources of income.