Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Sep 24: A special court in Mumbai dealing with cases involving MPs and MLAs on Thursday discharged Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal in a corruption case related to the construction of Mumbai University's central library at the Kalina campus.

The case was registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in 2015, when Bhujbal was serving as Maharashtra's Public Works Department (PWD) minister. The court also discharged the other accused in the case. The detailed order was not available immediately.

The ACB had alleged irregularities in the awarding of the contract for the library project and claimed that payments made to a trust associated with Bhujbal were linked to the contract.

The agency subsequently filed a chargesheet alleging that the project involved irregularities in the awarding of the construction contract and the handling of the land.

Bhujbal and the other accused had denied the allegations.

The case also involved several government officials who were associated with the PWD at the time. They included Gajanan Sawant, then a sub-divisional engineer; Harish Patil, then an executive engineer; Anilkumar Gaikwad, then a superintending engineer; Sanjay Solanki, then an undersecretary; and MS Shah, then secretary in the construction department.

The case remained pending for years as part of a wider investigation into alleged irregularities in contracts handled by the PWD during Bhujbal's tenure.

The controversy surrounding the library project extended beyond the criminal proceedings. In 2019, the Maharashtra government scrapped the public-private partnership contract for the construction of the central library at the Kalina campus and took back the land after paying compensation to the private developer.

The latest order discharges Bhujbal and the other accused in the Kalina library case.