Congress slams Maharashtra for shielding IAS officer Mopalwar, extending his tenure

The Congress on Wednesday questioned the extension of tenure granted to bureaucrat Radheshyam Mopalwar as the head of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, pointing to allegations of corruption against him.

Mopalwar, who retired from Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in February, was given a year’s extension starting March 1 by the government.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Radhkrishna Vikhe Patil, raised adjournment motion on this issue.

“It was almost like CM opened a single window clearance for Mopalwar. The inquiry set up to probe his allegations quickly gave him a clean chit and then without any advertisement, he was granted one year extension on contractual basis,” said Vikhe Patil.

Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan pointed out that this kind of extension was given only in rare cases and never to officials who faced graft allegations

“The inquiry against him was announced in the House so the report has to be tabled in the house. What were the findings of this report ? Nearly 35 audio clips of his telephonic conversations were submitted against him. Have they been examined?” asked Chavan.

The audio clips had conversations allegedly between Mopalwar and his aide and private investigator Satish Mangale. The conversations have several references to Mopalwar’s properties and income.

Chavan said that even if the audio tapes were found to be doctored or inconclusive the government needs to inform whether any investigation agency has probed claims made in the tapes about Mopalwar’s disproportionate assets.

“By getting a dubbing artist record a clip sounding much like Mopalwar, they have tried to show that the clips in question can be easily doctored” said Chavan, outside the assembly.

He added that these clips, along with a detailed complaint, had even been submitted to the Prime Minister’s Office by a BJP MLA but there seemed to be a conspiracy of silence to shield the official across all levels of hierarchy.

Mopalwar has earlier denied any involvement in these tapes and said they were doctored in a bid to malign him.

The adjournment motion was denied by the speaker. There was also no response on the issue raised by the government.