Cabinet berth case: Suspect’s links with neta PA under lens

MUMBAI: The crime branch, probing the racket where cabinet posts were offered for money, has found that one of the four arrested accused was reportedly in contact with the personal assistant of a senior politician from Delhi.
The crime branch on Monday arrested four persons, Riyaz Shaikh (41), Yogesh Kulkarni (57), Sagar Sanghvi (37) and Jaffar Ahmed Usmani (53), who had called an MLA to a five-star hotel in south Mumbai and offered a cabinet berth for Rs 100 crore.
Sources said four of the accused were no strangers to Daund MLA Rahul Kul, who won the 2019 election on a BJP ticket. The accused had contacted four more MLAs with the offer but nobody responded to them, while Kul bargained and laid a trap.
While Riyaz is into the mining business and Kulkarni is a chartered accountant, Sanghavi and Jaffar Usmani are friends. “Prima facie it is learnt that Riyaz was in contact with a PA of a politician in Delhi for some mining contracts. Now this is subject to verification. For further authentication we are doing technical analysis of their mobile phones and emails to check with whom they were in touch,” said a police officer.
Sources said the four have been into liaisoning work in Mumbai and Kolhapur and have political connections. Kul last week approached Marine Drive police and alleged that few people had approached him with the offer to avail ministry in cabinet for Rs 100 crores. Kul bargained and brought down the amount to Rs 90 crores and got the four arrested while they came to take the first installment of Rs 18 crores at a five star hotel in South Mumbai.