MUMBAI: Months after former Maharashtra minister Ravindra Waikar switched over to Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena from the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing has filed a closure report in a case against him for alleged irregularities in the construction of a luxury hotel here, an official said on Saturday.Waikar is currently the MP from Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency.He defeated the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar by a thin margin of 48 votes as per the results declared last month.Once a close aide of Uddhav Thackeray, Waikar joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena in March this year.He was a former standing committee chairman of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a four-time corporator and MLA from Jogeshwari for four terms.He was Minister of State for Housing, Higher and Technical Education between 2014 and 2019.As per the FIR registered against Waikar, he had entered into a contract with the BMC after getting permission to run a sports facility at a plot in Jogeshwari.The permission was granted when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was in power.In early 2023, a notice was issued to him for using the plot of land reserved for a public garden to construct a hotel.A Crime Branch official said, “The EOW filed a closure report in a court on Thursday in the case registered against Waikar, his wife Manisha and his four close associates. The reason mentioned for the closure of the case is incomplete information and misunderstanding.”As per the C-summary report, the complaint filed on behalf of the BMC was based on “incomplete information and misunderstanding”.The C-summary report is filed in cases where the FIR is found to be based on a mistake of fact.Waikar, his wife Manisha, business partners Aasoo Nehlanai, Raj Lalchandani and Prithpal Bindra, and architect Arun Dubey had been booked on the charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy on the complaint filed by BMC sub-engineer Santosh Mandavkar.
Source link
