Somaiya, his son seek pre-arrest bail in INS Vikrant cheating case

“Somaiya did not appear before us today. His lawyer said he is in Delhi. The lawyer informed us that Somaiya has applied for anticipatory bail. The hearing will be on Monday. We will oppose his bail plea,” an officer from Trombay police station said.

Somaiya denied any wrongdoing and said he was ready to face an inquiry. “I have not done anything wrong,” he said.

The case was registered a day after Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut alleged that Somaiya had invested the money in his son’s construction company instead of depositing it with the Maharashtra governor as he had promised.

The INS Vikrant was India’s first aircraft carrier, which played a key role in the 1971 war with Pakistan that led to the birth of Bangladesh. It was decommissioned in 1997 and preserved as a museum till 2012, before being sold and scrapped in November 2014 after Supreme Court clearance. The Navy is set to roll out its new indigenous aircraft carrier as “the reincarnated Vikrant”.

Senior inspector Rehana Shaikh said a first information report was registered against Somaiya, Neil and others based on a complaint lodged by an ex-serviceman, Baban Bhosle. According to the complaint, Somiaya, his son and others collected money from the public through donation boxes set up at railway stations across Mumbai “for restoring the aircraft carrier” in 2013-14.

Bhosle said he had put Rs 2,000 in one of the boxes and that, as per his knowledge, a total of Rs 57 crore had thus been collected from the public. While collecting donations, as per the complaint, Somaiya had said the money would be handed over to the governor.

According to the complaint, Bhosle learnt about the ship being scrapped and saw a news report about an RTI query to which the governor’s secretary had replied that the governor’s office had not received any such donation.

While Bhosle was not available for comment, his lawyer, Sandeep Singh, said that the former had approached him “with some evidence”, following which he petitioned the Trombay police.

“We are confident that the police will take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” he said. According to Singh, Bhosle is not associated with any political party.

Incidentally, over the past few months, Somaiya has accused various leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, of financial impropriety.

Responding to the FIR and Raut’s comments, Somaiya said: “There is no scam in this. I have not done anything wrong. Raut has been levelling allegations, but has not given proof to substantiate them. I will keep exposing the Uddhav Thackeray government. I am ready to face the investigation.”