(Readers should please note that what has been written below is not ’original’ in any way. Every piece of information has been obtained through that which has been printed earlier in the press. I have just compiled the information, often word-to-word, so that the reader gets the flow of events and connections).* **Avinash Bhosale : Who is he?** 1.He is a Pune based builder and businessman who first came into prominence after bagging lucrative construction contracts under the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation (MKVDC) for building dams and reservoirs in the Krishna Valley and other important areas. Maharashtra’s former IG of police SM Mushrif had said that while he was the Supt. of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau in 1998, he had sought permission to probe into a bid by irrigation contractor Avinash Bhosale for a Rs 100 crore project in Satara.
That permission was denied by the Maharashtra government. Now, Bhosale is easily the wealthiest irrigation contractor from Maharashtra. His net worth would be not less than 1, 000 crore. He is the owner of Avinash Bhosale Infrastructure Ltd (ABIL) which has businesses spanning across real estate, infrastructure and hotels. 2.He has close connections with Ajit Pawar, the ex-deputy chief minister of Maharashtra who resigned because of the recent ‘irrigation scam’. Former journalist Ketan Tirodkar has filed documents before the Bombay HC showing that Bhosale has close connections with Ajit Pawar. Family members of Bhosale has also got two flats at Adarsh CHS in Colaba. One flat was allotted in the name of his father, Nivrutti Bhosale, and another in his sister in- law, Jayashree’s, name. In their applications for Adarsh flats, Bhosale’s relatives mentioned their residential address as Jijai Bungalow, Yashwant Ghatge Nagar Co-op Society on University Road near E-Square. 3.Bhosale’s bungalow is also called ‘Jijai’ and it is a palatial residence with helicopters parked in the premises.The mention of this bungalow had come up during the probe into the Adarsh Housing Society scam in 2011 when the Bombay High Court questioned its ownership. Ajit Pawar was then forced to clarify to the press that he had rented this bungalow since 2009 and had later purchased it. It is extraordinary that the ex-chief minister of Maharashtra, who denies any wrong doing in the ‘irrigation scam’, resides in a bungalow in Pune that was owned by Avinash Bhosale who is easily the wealthiest irrigation contractor from Maharashtra. 4.On May 28, 2007 TOI reported that the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) arrested Avinash Bhosale from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji airport. According to the report, Bhosale with his wife and three other associates arrived at Mumbai airport from London.
The DRI officials found dutiable items in the baggage.The officials seized diamond-stud watches, each cost not less than Rs 10 lakh, several travel cheques, etc. Bhonsle and others except his wife were detained. Several top politicians and a Union minister too had tried to take him out of the problem. With every passing day, it became apparent that Bhosale has several friends in high places in Maharashtra, with politicians cutting across party lines coming out in his support. Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray openly came out in support of Bhosale in an editorial in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna "Is being rich a crime? Every Marathi manoos (man) should emulate Bhosale. He is our icon, " On the other side of the political divide, Bhosale’s enjoys the support of NCP, especially that of the former Irrigation Minister Ajit Pawar. "This shows the degradation of our political culture. I’m not surprised that everyone from Bal Thackeray to Ajit Pawar has supported him. They need him in the future also, " senior journalist Nikhil Wagle said. 5.Another scam associated with Avinash Bhosale was reported in the TOI (Jul 22, 2010) where he made Rs 275 crore by selling off half of the 12-acre Cidco plot on Palm Beach Road in Navi Mumbai. The plot was reserved exclusively for a five-star hotel, and Bhosale’s company, Metropolis Hotels, had emerged as the highest bidder at Rs 282 crore when Cidco invited bids in 2008.But in 2010 the builder requested Cidco to allow him to convert about six acres of this land for residential purposes.
The government agency received a paltry Rs 1.25 crore as ’change of user fee’ for approvial. The next month Bhosale sold the residential part of the plot to the Dheeraj Group which has already started marketing apartments at over Rs 9, 000 a sq ft in this prime location opposite Seawoods in Navi Mumbai .While Cidco rules permit change of land use, in this case it was done after CIDCO sold the land through a bidding process. Said a prominent citizen, "The government could just as well have sold this land directly to Dheeraj at the same price and made Rs 275 crore. Instead it allowed Bhosale to make an enormous profit by merely on-selling the land. It’s not as if he developed the land or added value to it in any way. It was a pure and simple trading profit. The boss of Cidco, and the government, should answer for this.
The "conversion charges’ amounted to a measly Rs 1.25 crore in lieu of which it made a jaw-dropping Rs 275 crore by merely selling it to another company. Four months later, a state government-appointed inquiry committee recommended cancellation of the 12-acre hotel plot allotted to Pune-based builder Avinash Bhosale.