No FIR against ex-slum rehab chief till Aug 9 as HC adjourns hearing

MUMBAI: Former SRA chief Vishwas Patil can breathe easy till August 9 as the Bombay high court adjourned his plea with a verbal request to the prosecutor to ensure that no FIR is registered against him till then by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
The HC passed no order but made the request on Patil's petition that challenges the validity of an order of the special judge under the Prevention of Corruption Act which had ordered the ACB to register a First Information Report (FIR) against Vishwas Patil, former Mumbai suburban collector and Chief Executive Officer, Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), his wife and two developers Ramji Shah and Rasesh Kanakia.
Patil's counsel Amit Desai arguing before HC bench Justices V K Tahilramani and Sandeep Shinde said that he was challenging the order passed by the ACB judge as being "per incuriam" as he could not have passed it legally under the existing law. Desai said that law requires prior sanction to be taken before a court can order investigation against a person who is or was a public servant. He also said that Patil was merely discharging his "ministerial functions" as a collector in 2009 on a decision taken by someone else.
The ACB special judge had last month passed the order against Patil and others on a private complaint filed by a Malad resident and shop occupant Hitendra Yadav. The complainant sought an FIR be registered against Vishwas Patil and others for conspiring to hand over a large government area as free sale plot, where Kanakia is constructing a luxury project called, Kanakia Levels. The allegation is that Vishwas Patil as then Mumbai suburban district collector coveyed a government land at Malad east to developer Ramji Shah, after his wife was made Director in Shah's Company. In a slum rehabilitation scheme, 44% extra land was given for development to the Kanakias, alleged Yadav's lawyer Aditya Pratap.
The court had agreed with Pratap's submission that law doesn't require prior sanction to register a criminal case of corruption against Vishwas Patil,a public servant, as he had retired in June.
The ACB has not yet registered an FIR.
Patil has contended that the plot was divided for FSI use by SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority), not him and he was not even in SRA when the letter of intent was issued.
He said that the "land was acquired by Government of Maharashtra" and he had "no role to play towards granting land to Shah Housecon Pvt. Ltd."
His wife is also a petitioner. The petition said that "Chandrasena Vishwas Patil was not a director in Shah Housecon Pvt. Ltd."
Their plea is that the Complainant had knowledge about execution of lease deed since 2009, but kept silent for seven years and hence said that the complaint was "motivated".
His case is also that the law prohibited registration of FIR against public servant without prior sanction of Government.
The Patils pleaded that no coercive steps be taken against them and the trial court order be set aside. He said he visited the ACB office thrice since the July 24 order including on Tuesday.