‘File tampering’ at BMC headquarters: Four granted bail

Four persons, including a developer and his relatives, have been granted anticipatory bail by a sessions court in the alleged file-tampering case, which took place at the civic body’s headquarters in May. The accused — Gyanprakash Shukla, the developer, his two relatives, Nikhil and Prabhakar Shukla and Brahmadev Pandey — have been asked to report to the police station on the 1st and 15th of every month and co-operate with the investigation.

A noting made by BMC Chief Ajoy Mehta regarding a court dispute between the civic body and a developer was allegedly tampered with. While the noting made by Mehta stated that the an appeal should be filed against a Bombay High Court order passed in November 2017 in favour of the developer, the word “should” was allegedly tampered with to make it “shouldn’t”. Both the police and the BMC had opposed the pre-arrest plea. The four have been booked under charges, including cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. A BMC clerk, Swapnil Puranik, was arrested in the case and is currently in judicial custody.