MUMBAI, May 11: Thane's appetite for land scams is legendary. With the latest one, which already has cost its prime accused his job as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president, the total money involved in these frauds has crossed Rs 1,500 crore.

While investigations into these cases have been sluggish, parties have never failed to make political capital out of them. Hardly surprising then that Awhad's involvement has given a new impetus to the probe and there already is a talk of constituting a special cell in the Anti-Corruption Bureau to deal with land scandals. ``We received a preliminary report in the case involving Awhad. We feel that a special cell should be set up in the ACB to tackle land scandals,'' a senior official told Express Newsline. Investigating agencies had shown some enthusiasm last year when top officials of the revenue department were found guilty of granting no-objection certificates (NOCs) under the Urban Land Ceiling Act without worrying too much about the rules and regulations.

The cabinet had discussed the matter at length and the Anti-Corruption Bureau had registered offences against the then divisional commissioner G B Pingulkar, then additional collector Sudhir Meshram and a dozen other revenue department officials. Following this, the BJP-Sena government had decided to set up a high-level investigation team headed by an official of the rank of collector to examine the matter. However, the move was stalled by the IAS Officers Association and the Revenue Employees Association. They were demanding that either ACB be made a multi-member body or it be replaced by a vigilance committee.

But Awhad's case is different. The ACB First Information Report (FIR) report says he connived with one Preetam Deulkar, a clerk in the Department of Food and Civil Supplies Department of Mantralaya and managed to change revenue records to transfer 174 acres of land worth Rs 175 crore in his friend's name.

The investigating officials found the relevant documents at Awhad's residence, who is also the Thane, the land of land scams Chairman of the Education Committee of the Thane Municipal Corporation, and that of his friend, Bhalchandra Mahadu Koli.

A resident of Chendni Koliwada, Koli had claimed that hundreds of acres of land from Mulund upto Trombay creek was given to his father by the East India Company. He had taken up his claim with the Thane district collector and also with the divisional commissioner, Konkan division. However, his appeals were rejected.

According to the FIR, Koli managed to insert the name of his father - Mahadu Shimgya Koli - in the official records of 174 acres of land pertaining to survey number 43 and then handed over the records to architects to prepare official records. To ensure that there was no objection from Mantralaya, Koli took Awhad's help, the FIR states.

Deulkar, who was earlier working in Thane tehsildar's office, helped Koli in changing the official records. He also misused the official letter head and stamp seal of the Revenue Secretary for the purpose.

Deulkar did not stop here. He allegedly fabricated all the records required to transfer the disputed land in the name of Koli and handed them over to Awhad. On the basis of these forged records, Awhad and Prabhu moved the state government for transferring the land in Koli's name.

For this Deulkar was allegedly paid Rs 50,000 by Koli, Rs 50,000 by the architects and Rs 1 lakh by Awhad.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.