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Make Zoting Committee report on Eknath Khadse public: BJP
The report, which was never made public by the Devendra Fadnavis government, also called Khadse’s actions “abuse of official position”
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Girish Mahajan said that his party will request chief minister Eknath Shinde to put on record the report prepared by the committee under retired justice DB Zoting to probe the allegations of Eknath Khadse before the state legislative assembly.
A one-man judicial commission of Justice DS Zoting, set up in 2016 to probe allegations against the then BJP revenue minister Eknath Khadse, who later joined NCP, had passed strictures against him, saying his direction to transfer a prime piece of MIDC land in Bhosari in favour of his wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhari was “vitiated by fraud”.
The report, which was never made public by the Devendra Fadnavis government, also called Khadse’s actions “abuse of official position”.
Mahajan, while speaking to reporters in Jalgaon said, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government never made the report public fearing the outcome will come into public domain.
“We will request chief minister Eknath Shinde to present it in the assembly. The case against Khadse is serious and that is why Khadse’s son-in-law has not been granted bail even after a year of his arrest,” said Mahajan.
On Saturday, Maharashtra anti-corruption bureau (ACB) submitted an application with Pune court seeking to examine fresh “material” submitted by complainant and investigate a land deal case against former minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Eknath Khadse.
ACB Pune unit filed an application seeking permission for further investigation, taking cognisance of documents submitted by Hemant Gavande on whose complaint a case was filed by ACB in 2017. Gavande had earlier this week submitted additional documents with sessions court where ACB had filed closure report in 2018.
Additional sessions Judge SB Hedau accepted the application and read out the matter for further hearing later this month.
In 2017, Pune-based activist Hemant Gavande had filed a complainant alleging that Khadse bought a three-acre plot in Maharashtra Industrial Development Area (MIDC) in 2016 by misusing his position as the revenue minister in the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the state. It is alleged that Khadse manipulated the actual market price of the land, incurring the state exchequer a loss of ₹61.25 crore.
