Apart from Suresh Jain and Gulabrao Deokar, 46 other accused were held in the case. The court found all of them guilty in the Jalgaon ‘Gharkul’ scam involving crores of rupees.
New Delhi: Maharashtra’s Dhule district court has pronounced the verdict in the infamous Jalgaon Housing Scam case. The two major accused-former Maharashtra Minister Suresh Jain and NCP leader Gulabrao Deokar were found guilty in the scam. The court has imposed a fine of whopping Rs 100 crore on Suresh Jain along with seven years of jail term. The second major accused, Gulabrao Deokar has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment and fine of Rs. 5 Lakh.
Apart from Jain and Deokar, as many as 46 other accused were held in the case. The court found all of them guilty of the ‘Gharkul’ scam involving crores of rupees. All of the accused have been awarded imprisonment between up to 3 to 7 years. After the court pronounced its verdict, all the 48 accused present in the court were taken into police custody.
Jain and Deokar were arrested earlier:
Shivsena leader Suresh Jain was first arrested in March 2012 in this scam. The accused minister had to stay in jail for almost a year. However, he got bail from the Supreme Court later. The second accused in the case Gulabrao Deokar was also arrested in this case in May 2013. He remained in jail for three years.
What is the Gharkul Housing scam?
In the 1990s when the scam took place, Suresh Jain was the Guardian Minister of Jalgaon whereas Gulabrao Deokar was housing minister. The then Municipal Council Jalgaon had floated the ‘Gharkul’ housing scheme in 1999 for the slum dwellers. It also raised loans worth Rs 110 crore for building 11,000 houses under the scheme. However, it later came to light that there was a scam of almost Rs 29 crores in the scheme. The land for the proposed scheme did not belong to the council. Apart from that the certificate for Non-Agricultural use of land was not obtained too.
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