Nagpur: The passport of Maharashtra social welfare minister Vijay Wadettiwar was impounded after he surrendered it on December 21. This is the result of a plea filed by former MLC Mitesh Bhangadiya in Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court. The passport (No K3570582) was issued on May 11, 2012.
The petitioner, through counsel Shreerang Bhandarkar, had accused the relief and rehabilitation minister of suppressing his ten criminal cases while applying for the passport on May 29, 2001 and misleading the authorities.
A detailed note issued by assistant passport officer Harshadkumar Parmar on Thursday said that the Bramhapuri MLA’s passport was impounded under Section 10 (3)(e) of the Passports Act, 1967 after he was issued a notice on December 18. He also submitted the order copies of cases pending against him in various courts.
“This office referred the case to the police authority of Nagpur and Gadchiroli along with the court copies for verification,” Parmar said.
Denying the accusations, Wadettiwar told TOI that his passport form was filled by the agent and it was the passport office’s duty to conduct verification before issuing the passport. “It’s not my fault if they issued it without verification. The offences registered against me were primarily political which are very minor in nature,” he said.
Wadettiwar said after Bhangdiya filed the case he decided to hand it over to the authorities for verification. “It wasn’t seized as claimed by Bhangdiya. I personally went to the passport office in Seminary Hills to surrender it. Since there are no offences against me currently, I will get it back shortly,” the minister said.
In his petition, Bhangdiya accused Wadettiwar of allegedly committing an offence under Section 12(1)(b) of the Passport Act, 1967, by hiding the information about his criminal antecedents. According to him, Wadettiwar had applied for a passport for a second time on January 25, 2007, but again suppressed the same information.
Bhangdiya filed many complaints with the Maharashtra government and ministry of external affairs (MEA) before moving HC. He claimed that Wadettiwar had wrongly mentioned in his affidavit to the passport office that his address was of Mumbai, whereas he stays in Gadchiroli and mentioned the same address on his income tax return forms. The motive was to transfer the passport application from Nagpur to Mumbai.
The petitioner pointed out that despite an adverse verification report submitted by the police to the passport office, it issued a passport to the minister, which shows a nexus between the officials and him.
In his petition, Bhangdiya had prayed for directives to the police commissioner, passport offices in Mumbai and Nagpur to register an FIR against Wadettiwar and seize his passport. The HC had issued notices to the minister and state home department in July last year.