In fresh trouble for former BJP legislator-Narendra Mehta, the Thane unit of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday filed an FIR (387/2022) at the Navghar police station in Bhayandar (east) against him on charges of amassing disproportionate assets of more than Rs. 8.25 crore. An offence under sections 13 (1) (d), 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and section 109 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the former legislator, while his wife Suman has also been booked for abetting the crime, police said.
The action followed after a complaint was registered with the Lokayukt who directed the ACB to conduct an open probe into the matter in 2016. After extended delays the FIR was finally registered on Thursday. However no arrests have been made so far. According to the ACB officials, the investigations and search operations have revealed that the legislator amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs. 8,25,51,772 which is well above his known source of income between 1, January-2006 to 31, August-2015 during which he served as a municipal corporator in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) and was later elected as legislator from the Mira-Bhayandar (145) assembly constituency by defeating his NCP rival in 2014.
However, he lost to his party rebel -Geeta Jain (independent) in the 2019 assembly elections. Said to be a close confidant of former chief minister- Devendra Fadnavis, Mehta who has also served as Mayor of the MBMC has always been in news-mostly for the wrong reasons.
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