New ACB courts will put long-pending FSI cases on fast track

Officials of the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) are busy tracing complainants and accused in more than 20-year-old Floor Space Index (FSI) violation cases. Reason: With the three new special ACB courts opened recently, the bureau is hopeful of disposing the cases as soon as possible.

In the 1980’s, there was a spurt of cases of FSI violations across the city. Sixteen such cases are still pending since 1986. “Earlier, there was a special court assigned for these FSI cases. However, the court started handling the general ACB cases since the past four years,” said additional superintendent of police, ACB, Sanjay Parande.

According to Parande, two officers have been assigned on each of the 16 cases and they are busy contacting the complainants and accused and witnesses in theses cases. “The older the case, the more tedious it becomes. It is a tough job to trace the complainants as very often they change residence or city. A few even lose interest in following up the case because of the delay in hearings,” said Parande adding that due to longer trials the witnesses tend to forget the exact series of events due to which the trial does not get over in reasonable time.

“Our officers working on these FSI cases have begun their work and we don’t want any kind of delay from our side. Also, the cases are so old that it is very difficult to keep compiling the data and understanding the case,” he said.

The bureau is hoping that high profile cases like MPSC, Govind Swaroop, AK Jain and a few others which have been lingering in the courts could also be disposed
of soon.

From 1992 to October 2008, 400 ACB cases are pending in the courts, including the FSI violation cases. In this, around 5% are cases of disproportionate assets (DPA).

While earlier there were only two special ACB courts, three more were started two months ago. “More courts will be extremely beneficial for the prosecution. The ACB cases are very different than the general crime cases. More conviction will only act as deterrent,” said Parande.