Mahararashtra parliamentary affairs minister Harshvardhan Patil allegedly grabbed a flat in an upscale locality of Mumbai in the name of his wife Bhagyashree by furnishing false affidavit and fudging annual income, RTI activists have said.

According to former IPS officer and lawyer YP Singh, Patil initially put in the name of his mother Ratnaprabha for a flat admeasuring 1,760 sq feet at Ashirwad Cooperative Housing Society but as her income was shown to be Rs 26,000 a month, much above the eligibility criteria, she was declared ineligible. As per the state law, annual earnings of applicants seeking benefit under economically weaker sections at cheaper rates should not be more than Rs 1.50 lakh. Additionally low-income applicants are entitled to concessions like extra floor space index for the building and less stamp duty for the land.

After that Patil proposed the name of his wife Bhagyashree who in her affidavit as part of her application for flat allotment declared her income as mere Rs 6,000 while that of her spouse was shown as nil, in sharp contrast to 2004, when while contesting assembly elections, Patil had shown his total assets to be worth above Rs 1.30 crore.

“This is a criminal conspiracy in which ministers, their relatives and government officials are involved. False documents were submitted to grab flats in the Ashiward CHS which is located at a prime location in Andheri,” Singh said.

“In addition to this, in spite of the fact that Patil owns a flat in Shubhada CHS at Worli his wife declared that neither she nor her husband owned any land in the BMC jurisdiction which is a blatant offence of criminal misconduct liable for seven year imprisonment,” Singh added.

A Government Resolution of 1999 says that anyone who already owns a flat within the city limits is not eligible for another flat.

A damning CAG report recently leaked by BJP MLA Devendra Fadnavis has severely reprimanded the state policy on land allotment and monitoring slamming the government for turning a blind eye to blatant violations by the allottees. It castigates the government for the absence of any land database.

The report reveals that prime land was given to trusts, institutions and housing societies run by kin of Congress and NCP ministers like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Narayan Rane, Chhagan Bhujbal, Dr Patangrao Kadam, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Harshwardhan Patil.

Gaikwad, who filed his complaint with the economic offences wing (EOW) today, said that if no action was taken they would move the high court. “Simultaneously we are also contemplating asking the revenue department to cancel land allotment,” he said.