Mumbai court refuses to close INS Vikrant fund misuse case against BJP’s Kirit Somaiya, son
The police had investigated the fund collection drive only in one location and did not ascertain where the money went, the court said.
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A Mumbai court has refused to close a case against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil for allegedly misappropriating Rs 57 crore of funds collected from the public for refurbishing Indian Naval Ship Vikrant, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.
The closure report filed by Mumbai Police’s Economic Offence Wing was rejected by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate SP Shinde of the Esplanade Metropolitan Magistrate Court on August 8.
The rejection came after the court observed that while drives to collect the funds had been undertaken at various locations, the investigating officer had only looked into the one outside the Churchgate railway station, the Hindustan Times reported.
The officer had also not ascertained what had happened with the collected funds, said the court, and ordered the case to be investigated further, The Indian Express reported.
A first information report was registered against Somaiya, a former BJP MP from Mumbai North East, and his son in 2022 under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property (420), punishment for criminal breach of trust (406) and acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (34).
The complaint was filed by Baban Bhosle, a retired Army officer.
The INS Vikrant (1961), India’s first aircraft carrier, was decommissioned from service in 1997 and was anchored as a museum at Mumbai’s...
