10 accused in FSI scam get 3 years RI

10 accused in FSI scam get 3 years RI
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, January 17: In one of the biggest Floor Space Index (FSI) scams of the 1980s, 10 persons, including government employees, builders and architects were sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) on the charge of manipulating civic records to illegally construct buildings for pecuniary gain and defrauding the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation of Rs 73 lakh.

The accused were on Monday convicted by designated Judge P Kukaday, who reserved his order on the quantum of sentence till today. They were fined for sums ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 1,0000 on several counts and sentenced to three years' RI for various offences. The sentences will run concurrently.

The case was filed against 18 accused, including smuggler-turned builder Yusuf Patel, who passed away during the pendency of the case. Three other co-accused, Bhaskar Joshi, Dilip Kerker and Ahmed Marwari are also no more. Marwari was a partner of M/S Patel Builders, while the other two were civic employees.

Of the remaining, four accused are acquitted. They are Chandrakant Kajrolkar (BMC surveyor), Madhav Welling (assistant engineer), Jafar Iqbal, additional collector and competent authority, Land Ceiling Act and Abdul Patel (builder and partner of M/S Patel Builders).

Those sentenced to three years' RI are Prabhakar Haval (superintendent, land revenue), Anand Landge (record keeper), Vijay Raut (revenue inspector), Tanaji Kharat (draftman), Ashok Kulkarni (surveyor), Balkrishna Gupta (architect), Mehmood Marwari (partner of M/S Patel Builders), Prakash Nadgaoda and Shashikant Koohikar (BMC sub-engineers) and Sharadchandra Phadke (executive engineer).