The Bombay High Court today disposed of a plea seeking prosecution against former Maharashtra minister Vijaykumar Gavit and his family in a disproportionate assets case after the petitioners informed that they were satisfied with Anti-Corruption Bureau probe and wanted to withdraw their petition.
A bench, headed by Justice Naresh Patil, while disposing of the PIL, took into account "the clean chit" given by ACB, which was later accepted by the state government.
The bench said "we do not express any opinion on the ACB report and the state's decision to accept it and accordingly dispose of the PIL."
The bench also recorded the statement of petitioners that they were satisfied with ACB probe and wanted to withdraw the petition. All the petitioners said they wanted to withdraw the plea out of their own free will and said there was no pressure on them from any quarters to do so.
The bench, however, asked the Income Tax department to proceed with the assessment of returns of the Gavits.
The HC did not entertain the plea of three intervenors -- Babulal Gite, Shantaram Dhatrak and Rahul Bharsakhale -- urging the court to keep the petition pending as the probe was still on. The court was of the view that they were disposing of the matter as the petitioners were not willing to pursue further. Moreover, the intervenors can seek legal remedy by filing separate petitions if the situation warranted in future.
Earlier, petitioner Vishnu Mhasle and two others had written a letter to ACB saying that they would not like to pursue the matter as the agency has said it could not find any material against Gavit and his family.
The Director General of ACB has said in a report before the court that there is no substance in the allegations against Gavit and the state government, too, has concurred with the finding.
