Nearly five months after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought the State government’s sanction to prosecute four officers of the Mumbai police for their involvement in a land grab case, Maharashtra Government accorded its approval for the same on Thursday. The four officers to be prosecuted include an officer of the rank of former Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), who is alleged to have forcibly evicted a developer from a 16-acre plot worth ₹60 crores at Dahisar in 2017. The sanction for prosecution of the public servants was signed by Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday night.

Sources in the government said the case is up for a hearing on February 17 in the Bombay High Court and political leadership in the state did not want to take a chance by delaying the permissions further. The CBI too would not be functioning over the weekend so it was important to accord the sanctions before the weekend. “This (weekday) was the only window open for us to to give an approval and forward the same to the CBI before the court hearing,” said a source in the government.

A court ordered CBI probe had found the public servants guilty as per provisions of Section-19(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and demanded a Sanction under sanction 197 (1) (b) of the CrPC in respect of offences under the PC Act and the IPC respectively, officials said.

The CBI had said the officers had shown ‘high handedness’ in dealing with the directors of Rommell Housing LLP which had purchased the land at Dahisar Check Naka from two private firms. The CBI had further alleged the grandson of one of the claimant on the land had alleged theft and dacoity in a police FIR at Dahisar Police Station, as result of which the directors Jude and Dominic Romell were arrested and thrown behind bars. A bail was given to Jude Romell in 2017.

The duo then approached the Bombay High Court to seek a remedy against the "malafide" FIR and accused the four officers of showing ‘high handedness’ in dealing with them. The court ordered an enquiry by official of the rank of Joint Commissioner of Police and directed the government to suspend the four officers in September last year. The CBI finally late last year registered an FIR and demanded approval for sanction against four officers including ACP (now retired) Prashant Marde, senior police inspector Subhash Sawant, then Assistant Police Inspector Anand Jadhav and Sub Inspector Kakasaheb Shinde.