MUMBAI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Mumbai Member of Parliament (MP) Kirit Somaiya who rushed on Tuesday to Bombay high court after the sessions court denied him pre-arrest bail, denying all allegations says the allegation he collected Rs 57 crore during the INS Vikrant restoration drive is "absurd" and his aim was to "reignite gratitude" towards the Naval ship.
His plea in HC says, "the drive to raise awareness and symbolic collection to save INS Vikrant was done so at the behest of the BJP and not an individual initiative."
His application which is listed before single Judge HC bench of Justice Anuja Prabhudessai on Wednesday says "it is extremely surprising that the First Informant had given a mere donation of Rs. 2000/- in the said drive but has come to an absurd conclusion that an amount of Rs. 57 crores has been collected during the said drive. It is impossible that such a huge amount can ever be collected from the general public in small boxes, outside the Churchgate station, within a few hours."
It says that he "organised and carried out the drive with no intention to collect large amounts of funds or donations for the restoration of I.N.S. Vikrant, but purely to reignite the sentimental feelings of gratitude in memory of the ship’s work towards the Indian public."
This fact can be confirmed as money collected was in "small steel boxes, enough to carry extremely small amounts of money."
There is an unexplained delayed in filing of FIR and informant cites interview of Sanjay Raut so it is “clearly indicative of the political pressure” of Raut to register the FIR after nine long years,to "trap" him and his family.
One of the grounds for his pre-arrest bail is that "In 2013, the political relations between BJP and Shiv Sena were cordial and hence no such allegations were ever levelled against the Accused persons" and that in fact, he says, Raut had signed a common letter with him (Somaiya) and several other high ranking politicians addressed to the President of India for saving I.N.S Vikrant.
His application, filed through advocate Hrishikesh Mundargi says "it clearly seen that during 2013, all the political parties leaving aside their political differences had unanimously initiated several drives and initiatives for the cause of I.N.S Vikrant". It adds, "since the political relations between the BJP and Shiv Sena have now soured, the present false and baseless FIR is filed by putting a dummy First Informant."
"The contents of the FIR are a figment of imagination of the First Informant and there is no proof, material or any reason for suspicion that such a huge amount was collected during the said drive and siphoned off by the Accused".
"Similarly, several other political parties had also initiated similar drives", to save Vikrant . For this 10- 15 young karyakartas collected donations from the general public.’’ The total collection was less than 15,000 Rs and was handed over by Somaiya to the then Governor.
The FIR against the Ex MP and current vice president of BJP, Maharashtra and his son Neil Sompaiya who was the office bearer of the youth wing of the BJP was filed on April 7 with Economic Offences Wing at Trombay Police Station for offences of cheating and criminal breach of trust under Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The politician, 68, says in his plea for anticipatory bail, that he "enjoys great repute and liking amongst the public, and strives hard for the upliftment and benefit of the people’’ and “is a highly appreciated and amongst the popular young leaders in Maharashtra."
His plea is that in 2013 as "the then Central Government had intended to scrap I.N.S. Vikrant as it had outlived its usefulness for the Indian Navy, the BJP along with Shiv Sena and several other political parties such as the Republican Party of India had initiated several campaigns and steps for sentimental and national interest of stalling the scraping of I.N.S. Vikrant."
Somaiya says, "mere allegation" of his "being present at the time of the drive cannot be implicative of his role in the vile allegations levelled by the First Informant’’—who had “joined the Indian Army as peon in 1990 and retired from service in 1997."
His application says, "It is imperative to go into the history and recent modus operendi of the current state machinery against reputed political leaders and personalities…resorting to filing baseless FIRs against them, having them arrested at odd hours without any prior notice…"
