MUMBAI: A magistrate court has refused to close the case registered against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil Somaiya who were accused of allegedly defrauding funds worth Rs 57 crore collected from the public for refurbishing the decommissioned Navy’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant noting that further probe was required in the case. 

The additional chief judicial magistrate SP Shinde on August 8 had rejected the closure report filed by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police after noticing that while drives to collect funds were undertaken at various places, the investigating officer had only inquired into the drive outside Churchgate station and did not investigate as to what was done with funds collected by them to save the naval aircraft ship.

The FIR against Somaiya and his son Neil was registered in April 2022 at the Trombay police station in April 2022, by Baban Bhosle, a retired serviceman. The chief minister then was Uddhav Thackeray of undivided Shiv Sena (now Shiv Sena -Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leading the Maha Vikas Aghadi along with Sharad Pawar of the undivided NCP and the Congress Party.

According to the complainant Bhosle, the Somaiya duo misappropriated Rs 57 crore collected from the public in the name of saving INS Vikrant, which was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November 2014. Bhosle claimed that he himself had donated Rs 2,000 to the cause. He further said that the Somaiyas claimed that the funds collected had been deposited with the governor’s office, however, he found from response under right to information that it had not received any money from the BJP leader. 

Somaiya's submission to the police was that they had collected only Rs 11,000 and it was handed over to the governor. The case was subsequently transferred from Trombay police station to the EOW for investigation. 

In the closure report filed in December 2022, the EOW stated that during the investigation, they recorded statements of 38 witnesses who had contributed money for saving INS Vikrant during a drive conducted outside Churchgate railway station. According to the investigating officer, about Rs 10,000 was collected during a one-hour drive after which Somaiya had met the then-governor the very same day, apparently to hand over the collected money, though it was not known what transpired during their meeting. The officer, thus sought closure of the case, claiming there was no misappropriation of funds.

The court, after going through the statements of witnesses, who had donated money for saving INS Vikrant, said it appears that witnesses have contributed and the accused have collected the amount during the drive, but the investigating officer has not placed any document on record showing that the amount was deposited by the accused either with the office of Maharashtra Governor or the (state) government. The court also directed the investigation officer to further conduct a probe in the light of its observations and submit a report.