MBMC chief transferred after ED summons

The Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) commissioner Dilip Dhole has been replaced by Sanjay Katkar after being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering probe. Dhole's transfer was imminent after the ED summons appeared. The probe is related to an alleged scam involving builders avoiding surrendering excess land to the government through bribery and fake documents.

Mumbai: After the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned the Mira-Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) commissioner Dilip Dhole in connection with a money laundering probe, the state government on Wednesday replaced him with Sanjay Katkar.

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Katkar was recently inducted into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and posted as joint managing director in the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO). IAS officer Kailas Shinde, who was awaiting posting, has been appointed in CIDCO.

Dhole took charge as MBMC chief in March 2021. A year before that, he had joined the civic body as an additional municipal commissioner. Dhole was private secretary to Eknath Shinde when the latter was a minister in the earlier Devendra Fadnavis government from 2014 to 2019.

He was of deputy commissioner rank, equivalent to deputy collectors of the revenue department and hails from the sales tax department. Dhole’s wife Sujata is also of deputy commissioner rank and is additional commissioner of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).

Sources in the government said that deputy chief minister Fadnavis had been asking the CM to transfer Dhole, but nothing happened. However, when the news of ED summons appeared, his transfer was imminent.

The agency had initiated its probe after the Thane police detected the alleged scam in November 2016 in which several builders, in violation of the Urban Land Ceiling Regulation (ULCR) Act, avoided surrendering excess land to the government through bribery and using fake documents. Dhole has been called to seek information and clarification related to the agency’s probe into the ULCR Act case, agency sources said.

The accused builder, who was meant to surrender his excess land holding to the government under the ULCR Act or get an exemption from the state authorities under section 20 of the Act, had allegedly wrongly impressed upon the people and the authorities that he had the exemption to carry out construction on a plot in Mira-Bhayandar.

The builder was accused of also creating dubious documents related to permissions, orders, making use of stamps and signatures in connivance with a few government officers. It was alleged that the fraud had caused a loss of around ₹11.17 crore to the state exchequer.

It was alleged that all the accused persons connived to cook up records to evade the provision under the Act which required the surrender of 5% of land to the government for the economically weaker section while undertaking construction on any ULC land plot. The land under the scanner of the police was around 23,340 square metres.

In June 2021, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that was constituted to probe allegations of corruption against Thane police during their probe into the ULC case, had nabbed three persons, including a former town planner of Mira-Bhayandar and an architect.

When contacted, Dhole did not respond to calls.