Sensing the magnitude of the Basic Services to Urban Poor (BSUP) housing project scam, the Mira Bhayandar-Vasai Virar (MBVV) police chief- Madhukar Pandey has handed over the reins of investigations to the crime branch unit (Zone I).
The case was earlier being investigated by the Kashimira police. So far, six people including a local politician and the owner of a local fair price shop have been arrested for their involvement in the racket in which gullible home seekers were duped to the tune of more than ₹50 lakh under the guise of offering them cheap flats.
City Engineer's forged signature used in BSUP scam
The case got a new twist when the city engineer of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC)- Deepak Khambit raised suspicion that his signatures had been forged to facilitate allotments to fake beneficiaries. Khambit filed a complaint with the police seeking FIR to be registered against the racketeers for forging his signatures. It emerged that apart from fleecing money from gullible home seekers under the guise of offering them cheap flats, the gang is also involved in fabricating government documents and forging signatures of officials to facilitate allotments to fake beneficiaries in the housing scheme.
“Yes, we are handling the case now. Process was on to verify the documents and our team will dig out more information and get to the bottom of the scam.” confirmed police inspector (crime branch)- Aviraj Kurhade. More people including influential politicians, former corporator and an advocate are on the police radar for playing an active role in aiding and sheltering the racketeers to usurp multiple flats meant for the poor.
MBVV police transfers case to crime branch
The investigating team had found several incriminating documents from the possession of the accused including- ration cards and electricity bills having the address of the tenement in the slum, original survey registry and most importantly a list comprising more than 450 names tagged as allottees or potential beneficiaries. The MBMC had identified two slum clusters - Janta Nagar and Kranti Nagar to construct 4,136 housing units with a carpet area of 279 sq.ft. per unit in 2009.
However, due to inordinate delays the central government reduced the number of units from 4,136 to 2,160. Ironically, only 473 slum dwellers have been rehabilitated even as thousands of other eligible beneficiaries continue to live in transit accommodations as the project has scripted history of sorts by missing multiple deadlines.
