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Bhatia withdraws case against Bongirwar

Michael Gonsalves in Pune

The Bombay High Court on Monday allowed former municipal commissioner of Pune, Arun Bhatia, to withdraw his two writ petitions -- one seeking action against Maharashtra Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar in a corruption case, and the other requesting the HC to set aside a lower court order directing Pune police to probe his (Bhatia's) alleged misbehaviour with a cop.

Justice N J Pandya and Justice S S Parkar agreed with the submissions of Advocate General C J Sawant that both the petitions were not maintainable.

The judges said that the High Court was not the proper forum for Bhatia to seek redressal of his grievances and that he should have first gone to the police and then to a magistrate before moving the bench.

When the bench decided to reject both the petitions, counsels for Bhatia, Amit Bhowmick and S R Chitnis, urged that his client be allowed to withdraw them.

However, Bhatia maintained that his crusade against corruption would continue and that the withdrawal of the writ petitions was not a setback to to his fight against corruption.

The crusader, who has managed to rub authorities the wrong way with unerring regularity and as a consequence has been tranferred frequently, said the case against Bongirwar was not of a personal nature. "If you want good governance, you must fight the malaise of corruption to its logical conclusion."

Bhatia said he would decide his future course of action after consulting his lawyers.

Bhatia was recently transferred from the Pune Municipal Corporation to the state archives after he undertook demolition of several unauthorised structures, some of which belonged to local politicians. However, following a public outcry and a high court order in his favour, he was reinstated.

But, just days after he was reinstated, he resumed the demolitions. While this further endeared him to Puneites, who were instrumental in getting him reinstated, it put him on a confrontation course with local corporators.

On June 9, the Pune Municipal Corporation's general body passed a resolution seeking his recall from the post and the state government promptly transferred to him to the archives department.

During his brief stint as the Pune municipal commissioner Bhatia had come across some files which allegedly indicated irregularities committed by Bongirwar during his tenure as chief of the Pune civic body.

Bhatia lodged an FIR with Deccan Gymkhana police station alleging that in 1985, when Bongirwar was the municipal commissioner, he had awarded road contracts to a group of seven people while ignoring five others.

The aggrieved parties had moved a lower court Pune, which had passed strictures against Bongirwar. Bhatia submitted that although the state government had come to Bongirwar's rescue by inviting fresh tenders, he could not escape criminal liability.

The other case, in which Bhatia has been accused of misbehaving with a police officer, is also related to Bhatia's attempts to bring Bongirwar to book.

Police officer R Kundalkar, who has accused Bhatia of ill-treating him, had visited the latter's house in connection with his complaint against Bongirwar. Bhatia has alleged that Kundalkar's visit was aimed at only 'harassing' him.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone I, Pune, Ajit Patil told reporters on Monday that preliminary inquiries into the complaint lodged by Bhatia with the Deccan Gymkhana police against Bongirwar were almost complete.

He said his department had conducted a thorough inquiry into the matter and called for all the relevant documents since the case involved a ''senior and responsible officer'' of the State Government.

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