A criminal public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court alleging that Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, his son Pankaj and nephew Sameeer are beneficiaries of a residential co-operative building-turned-commercial building in Oshiwara. The PIL also alleges that the residents have not been paid any money as the Bhujbals collected all proceeds of the sale.

Activist Pravin Wategaonkar, who filed the PIL, said as per information obtained by him from the Housing Department, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered an FIR on July 12, 2017 against officials of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), office-bearers of the Oshiwara Tulsi co-op housing society, and Sameer and Pankaj, the directors of Bhavesh Constructions, for offences punishable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The PIL states that Bhavesh Constructions paid for the project and later collected proceeds of the sale of those commercial tenements, without giving possession to society members. It is alleged that officials of MHADA entered into a conspiracy with the office-bearers of Oshiwara Tulsi CHS and cheated the government by granting a no-objection certificate to use the plot allotted as residential space for commercial purposes.

Mr. Wategaonkar alleged that within 10 days of filing the FIR, one of the accused, Shyamsunder Shinde, the former CEO of MHADA, had made a written request to ACB to delete his name from the FIR citing MHADA resolutions authorising him to allow conversion of a residential plot to commercial land.

The PIL urges the court to give directions to the director of the ACB to complete the investigation into the matter and issue directives to the director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The PIL will be heard by a Division Bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre.

The PIL mentions that on December 18, 2014, a special inquiry team of ED and ACB was set up to look into allegations of awarding of contracts and huge payments to private limited companies and/or trusts where Mr. Bhujbal and his family members or family members of the employees were either directors or members or trustees. The PIL also asked the court to ensure that the open inquiry by the ACB is completed without delay.