Special judge A K Patil observed that no case could be made out against the company's officials in order to frame the charges mentioned by CBI
Sandip Shetty's brother was found hacked to death in 2010
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After a three-year investigation into the land grab case against M/s IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) special court on Wednesday discharged the company's chairman and managing director Virendra Mhaiskar and other officials due to lack of evidence.
Considering the charge sheet filed in the case, the documents on record and the submissions made by the parties involved, special judge A K Patil observed that no case could be made out against the officials to frame the charges mentioned by CBI. Earlier, IRB had filed a discharge application saying that the chargesheet filed against the accused was completely devoid of substance.
Based on documents received under the Right to Information Act, activist Satish Shetty had filed a cheating and forgery complaint against Mhaiskar and others in October 2009, alleging that they were involved in illegal purchase of government land in Ozarde and Pimploli villages of Maval tehsil in Pune district.
However, on January 13, 2010, unidentified assailants hacked Shetty to death at Talegaon Dabhade. Though the case was initially closed after the Pune rural police filed a closure report, the CBI moved the Bombay High Court in August 2014 and sought permission to reopen the land grab case. In January 2015, the CBI conducted searches at premises (residential and official) of IRB and its senior officials in Mumbai and Pune and claimed to have seized some incriminating material.
Thereafter, in December 2017, it filed a chargesheet against 16 people, including Mhaiskar, Deepak Gadgil, authorised signatory of M/s Aryan Infrastructures (a subsidiary of Ideal Road Builders), revenue officials, land agents, lawyers and some farmers in the sessions court.
Speaking to mid-day, Satish's brother, Sandip Shetty said, "This is a failure on the CBI's part. They could not even frame charges after investigating the case for three years. The Bureau had only approached the high court to take up the investigation of the case as they had substantial evidence. This is complete injustice. I will continue my fight for the truth and will approach the high court if necessary."
Defence lawyer Shrikant Shivde said, "The IRB officials were falsely implicated in the case and no evidence has been found against them."
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