Mumbai, Aug 25 (TOI): Well over five years after the state home department granted permission to the anti-corruption bureau to conduct an inquiry into the redevelopment of a prime property in the prestigious Malabar Hill area, there's little progress in the probe.

On a complaint lodged with the Lok Ayukta, the home department had on November 18, 2011 granted permission to ACB to conduct an inquiry against the developer of the property, Layer Exports, then chief minister Ashok Chavan, film financier Bharat Shah, Rajesh Shah and staff of housing development authority, Mhada, for their role in the project. The main allegation from the complainant, Pratapsinh Sawant, was that the developer inflated tenants and utilised surplus FSI fraudulently. It was alleged that instead of nine genuine tenants, 48 were shown.

An earlier inquiry by Mhada in December 2007 had indicated there was substance in the allegations made by Sawant. According to Mhada's report, complaints were received about the no-objection certificate issued to the developer; most of these complaints were about the number of tenancies being inflated by the owner to 48, even though the original building was in the form of a bungalow with three floors. Even rent receipts were allegedly fabricated by the owner.

In conclusion, the report said possession of 48 flats shown for the purpose of rehabilitation of so-called occupants/tenants needed to be taken over by Mhada forthwith and that it was necessary to stop construction work on the building till the issue of tenancy was finally settled.

As there was a dispute over the number of tenants, Mhada had sought the opinion and guidance of the state housing department. The then housing secretary, Sitaram Kunte, on July 23, 2009, in a two-page well reasoned order, submitted that as a special case, the state government was approving the list of nine tenants. But in future, if a tenant among the nine approved or any other person raised a dispute on tenancy or ownership in the redeveloped building, the responsibility would lie with the developer; the state government would not entertain any dispute raised by the 39 tenants.

Following the complaint lodged with Lok Ayukta, Mhada's vigilance branch had conducted a probe into the authenticity of the 39 tenants. It found that no one was in possession of documentary evidence to establish that they were residents of the controversial building and their names were not found in the voter list too.

The ACB had sought information, documents and names of officials associated with the project from the housing department. The department then submitted documents pertaining to the project and informed ACB that the proposal was dealt with by Sitaram Kunte, deputy secretary Dilip Shinde, under secretary Santosh Bhogale and desk officer Shrikant Pulkundwar.

Acting DG (anti-corruption) Vivek Phansalkar declined to comment on the present status of the probe, while a senior housing department official said since all documents have been submitted to ACB, it was now the responsibility of the investigating agency to verify if rules were broken. Meanwhile, construction of the highrise built on the plot has been completed.