CBI raids IRB Infrastructure offices in Mumbai and Pune

New Delhi: CBI today carried out searches at 21 locations in Mumbai and Pune in the premises of an infrastructure company to probe allegations of land grabbing along Mumbai Pune Highway on the directions of Bombay High Court. CBI sources said the searches were an off-shoot of the murder of RTI activist Satish Shetty who had sought information on the alleged land grabbing by IRB Infrastructure developers.

The Bombay High Court, on the request of the CBI, had handed over the probe to the agency to investigate allegations of land grabbing in August last year.

The CBI had registered a case under various sections of IPC related to cheating and forgery against Deepak Dattatrey Gadgil, who is the authorised signatory for Aryan Infrastructure (a subsidiary of IRB infrastructure) and 12 others, the sources said.

Efforts to seek comments from the company did not fructify.

Today after registering the case in November last year, the CBI carried out searches at 21 locations including the offices and residence of Gadgil and Virendra Mahaiskar, managing director IRB Infrastructure. Besides these, the premises of other 15 individuals were also searched, they said.

Shetty had been demanding information about the alleged land grabbing on Mumbai Pune Highway by builders. The sources said it was suspected that his RTI applications could be a reason behind his murder but in the absence of any evidence, a closure was filed.

Shetty was killed as he stepped out of his house on 13 January 2010, at Talegaon Dabhade town in Pune district. In 2009, he had written a letter to the Pune police seeking protection as he was allegedly being threatened by Mhaiskar.

Shetty had alleged that IRB and its subsidiary companies with the connivance of bureaucrats prepared fake documents to claim the ownership of government land.

PTI