Panel told Vilasrao to scrap deal with filmmaker in 2007

Five years before the Bombay High Court asked filmmaker Subhash Ghai to return his film school land to the government, a legislative committee had recommended that the deal be scrapped. The government, however, did not pay heed to the recommendation.

Five years before the Bombay High Court asked filmmaker Subhash Ghai to return his film school land to the government, a legislative committee had recommended that the deal be scrapped. The government, however, did not pay heed to the recommendation.

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Senior BJP MLA Nana Patole, who headed the State Legis-lature’s Public Undertaking Committee (PUC) in 2007, told HT on Friday that his committee had asked that construction work on Ghai’s film school, Whistling Woods, be stopped. “The work did not stop, but my committee managed to convince the government to arrest then managing director of the Maharashtra Film, Stage and Cultural Development Corpo-ration (MFSCDC) Govind Swa-rup in a related case,” said Patole. Swarup is currently fighting the case in a lower court.

Patole’s statement has quee-red the pitch further for then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was rapped by the HC on Thursday for irregularities in the deal. Opposition parties also mounted pressure and demanded Deshmukh’s resignation as Union science and technology minister.