Thane: Three held in urban land ceiling scam case

Nearly five years after the Thane Police registered an FIR in the multi-crore urban land ceiling (ULC) scam case, three persons were arrested on Friday.

The arrests assume significance since a builder had recently alleged that former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who was the Thane Police chief when the FIR was registered in 2016, had taken money to not take action against some accused in the case. Singh and the said government have been at loggerheads ever since he wrote a letter accusing former state home minister Anil Deshmukh of graft.

Those arrested have been identified as Satyavan Dhanegave, retired assistant town planner; Shekhar Limaye, assistant to the architect; and Bharat Kamble, an employee with the ULC office. Thane Police is now on the lookout for another accused.

The builder, Raju Shah, in his letter to the Maharashtra DGP last month had alleged in the ULC scam case, only one chargesheet was filed against six persons, one of whom had died. He said money was taken from several builders to ensure they were not arrested though they were involved in the fraud. Police had claimed the scam came to light after a builder in Mira Bhayander was found using bogus documents to show a particular plot developed by him fell under the “green zone” and not the “residential zone”, thus exempting him from handing it over to the state.