If allegations of corruption are proven to be untrue, HC warns of severe consequences

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad bench, hearing a civil application (CA) filed by Sandeep Kshirsagar, took strong exception to the widespread corruption allegations made by NCP (Sharad Pawar) MLA against Deepa Mudhol-Munde, the Beed district collector, and other officials. The bench also threatened to impose heavy penalties on Kshirsagar should the allegations prove to be unfounded.

After hearing the civil application, the division bench of the High Court, which included Justices Ravindra Ghuge and RM Joshi, issued the following ruling: “We make it clear that if we finally conclude that the petitioner’s allegations and contentions against bureaucrats and individuals/entities were baseless, we would be imposing extremely heavy costs of not less than Rs 5 lakh, in addition to passing a consequential order.”
MLA Kshirsagar filed a civil suit, along with a writ petition, via attorney Sachin Deshmukh, contesting the Beed district collector’s activities for allegedly breaking statute and constitutional requirements pertaining to district planning committees.
The persons cited in the civil suit filed earlier this year include the Beed district collector, the secretary of the Maharashtra rural development department, the PWD executive engineer, the ZP CEO, and the Beed district guardian minister.
MLA Kshirsagar asked for the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) via a civil application in order to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the situation and take necessary action going forward, which may include taking action against personnel who engage in fraudulent activity through forgery, fraud, and misappropriation. Furthermore, the CA requested that the court step in to stop any current projects that do not follow the rules and to make sure that future developments follow the correct processes.
MLA Kshirsagar listed incidents in the civil suit whereby monies totaling Rs 8 crore were allotted for specific development projects in Beed city, purportedly in contravention of established protocols. The MLA specifically called attention to disparities in the financing of building projects, such as drainage systems and roads, that are located within municipal boundaries. The CA claims that despite the MLA’s protests at DPC meetings, the district collector allowed works that were either already finished or engaged in several projects.
Assistant government attorney RS Wani argued that, as the writ petition is still ongoing, the aforementioned civil application should not be granted due to the nature of the petitioner’s charges against officials and the petitioner’s political status. The HC decided to consider the civil application in addition to the one that had previously been filed after taking notice of it.