Mumbai: In July final 12 months, Rahul Kul, the BJP MLA from Daund in Maharashtra’s Pune district, obtained a name from one ‘Riyaz bhai’, who claimed he may safe a cupboard berth for the legislator in alternate for Rs 100 crore.
Six months later, Riyaz Shaikh and 6 others have been charged in what has now come to be often called the ‘cash-for-berth’ rip-off.
On 13 January this 12 months, the anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the Mumbai Police Crime Department submitted a 439-page chargesheet towards the seven accused within the ‘cash-for-berth’ rip-off — Riyaz Allahbaksh Shaikh (41), Yogesh Kulkarni (57), Sagar Sanghoi (37), Jaffar Ahmed Usmani (53), Nandkishore Prasad alias NK Singh (59), Vishal Dilip Kale alias Singh (30) and Pawan Mutreja (40).
The accused had been charged below related sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for dishonest, impersonating a public servant, forgery, and prison conspiracy.
The accused, says the chargesheet, are all conmen — from Delhi and throughout Maharashtra, together with from Kolhapur, Thane and Mumbai — with a number of circumstances of dishonest towards them.
ThePrint reached Mumbai Police Crime Department officers through name however they declined to remark.
ThePrint additionally reached three senior BJP leaders, particularly Kul, Samadhan Autade (MLA from Pandharpur), and Subhash Deshmukh (MLA from Solapur) — who had been targets within the ‘cash-for-berth’ rip-off — through textual content message however didn’t get a response by the point of publication. This report will probably be up to date when a response is acquired.
The preliminary probe means that the accused, in a bid to make a fast buck, had been making an attempt to benefit from the fluid political state of affairs in Maharashtra caused by the cut up throughout the Shiv Sena that culminated within the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) authorities.
In June final 12 months, 40 Sena MLAs led by Eknath Shinde rebelled towards occasion chief after which CM Uddhav Thackeray to deliver down his three-party (Sena-NCP-Congress) coalition authorities, earlier than becoming a member of palms with the BJP. Shinde was sworn in because the chief minister and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis because the deputy chief minister.
In consequence, there have been many aspirants for cupboard berths among the many Sena MLAs Shinde weaned away from the Thackeray-led faction. Equally, there have been many throughout the BJP — which had been out of energy within the state since 2019 — hoping for a cupboard portfolio within the Shinde-Fadnavis administration.
The federal government was initially fashioned solely with Shinde and Fadnavis’s swearing-in on 30 June. The cupboard was first expanded in early August with 9 ministers from every of the 2 events with the promise of a second growth quickly. Nevertheless, the second growth hasn’t come to go but.
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‘Senior politician in Delhi’ — the con
Their eyes fixated on the change in authorities in Maharashtra, 4 of the accused within the case — Vishal Kale, Jaffar Usmani, Nandkishore Prasad and Pawan Mutreja — allegedly determined to hatch a plan to con state legislators.
In July 2022, they contacted fellow accused Sagar Sanghoi and tasked him with figuring out politicians who had been taken with cupboard posts. Sanghoi then requested Riyaz Sheikh and Yogesh Kulkarni to hold out the duty.
In keeping with Kul’s assertion cited within the chargesheet, the BJP MLA mentioned he acquired a name on his cell phone on 12 July final 12 months from one ‘Riyaz bhai’ who advised him that he was “involved with a senior politician in Delhi”, and will get Kul a cupboard submit within the Shinde authorities in alternate for Rs 100 crore if the legislator was .
“However then I advised him that I’m not taken with getting a cupboard submit like that,” Kul mentioned in his assertion.
On 17 July, Kul’s private assistant Omkar Thorat mentioned one Riyaz bhai from Delhi had come to see him they usually determined to fulfill at a five-star resort in Mumbai. “Once I met him that night on the resort’s cafeteria, I used to be sure he was the identical man who contacted me just a few days again,” Kul mentioned.
Throughout that assembly, Riyaz advised Kul that he may get the berth for Rs 90 crore however should pay 20 per cent of the whole quantity (Rs 18 crore) instantly. “I realised then that he’s some conman and with the intention that his gang must be arrested, I requested him to fulfill me the following day,” mentioned the MLA.
In keeping with his assertion, Kul — after speaking to senior leaders of his occasion — determined to put a entice for the conmen and lodged a grievance on this regard with the Marine Drive police station in Mumbai. In consequence, Riyaz was apprehended when he got here to the five-star resort the following day to just accept the token quantity.
An identical sample was utilized by the accused to con the opposite two MLAs, Autade and Deshmukh.
Nevertheless, of their statements, the 2 mentioned that they advised Riyaz over the cellphone that they weren’t taken with ‘shopping for’ cupboard berths. “Then, I by no means acquired any calls from him and some days later, I noticed on TV information that he was arrested,” the MLAs mentioned of their statements to the AEC.
‘Duped Chhota Shakeel’s brother-in-law’
Riyaz’s interrogation led investigators to Yogesh Kulkarni, Sagar Sanghoi, and Jaffar Usmani who too had been arrested days later.
Usmani led them to Delhi-based Nandkishor Prasad alias NK Singh, a mine proprietor from Jharkhand’s Bokaro district, who he claimed was in contact with senior politicians in Delhi.
A police crew then arrested Singh from Bokaro.
In keeping with the chargesheet, the police are nonetheless searching for accused Pawan Mutreja, whose cellphone has been “switched off since August”.
The crime department additional mentioned Singh used a pretend visiting card to impersonate a senior central authorities worker.
The chargesheet additionally mentioned that the police relied on name information data (CDRs), WhatsApp chats, SIM playing cards and audio recordings of the cellphone calls the place the alleged demand was made, moreover cellular handsets of the accused that had been despatched for forensic examination.
Curiously, cellular chats and name data of the accused additionally revealed that they extracted Rs 50 lakh from gangster Chhota Shakeel’s brother-in-law Salim Qureshi alias Fruit on the promise that they might save him from the clutches of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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