Mumbai: In a significant development related to an “illegally” constructed Dargah in Uttan, the chief minister’s secretariat office (CMO) which is operational from the Thane district collectorate has directed the sub divisional magistrate (SDM) to conduct a probe into a complaint against three revenue officials including-circle officer, talathi and upper tehsildar for their suspected role in attempting regularisation of the structure in an unlawful manner.
The orders followed in response to a complaint filed by Advocate Khush Khandelwal of the Hindu Task Force on April 25-2024. The complainant has been alleging massive illegal constructions on land measuring more than 70,000 square feet by the Bale Shah Peer Charitable Trust on protected mangrove belts located on government owned land parcels near the sensitive Chowk jetty in Uttan near Bhayandar.
It has been alleged that the circle officer-Deepak Ahire and local talathi-Ramesh Fafale who were shouldering the responsibility of investigating the application moved by the trust seeking regularisation of the shrine, tabled a report stating that the structure was in existence before 1995.
Owing to the objections the plea to enter the trusts name on the 7/12 property extracts was rejected. “It came to light that the report was prepared on the virtue of a fake ancient time report on January, 23, 2023. This despite the fact that the erstwhile upper tehsildar in his inspection report in 2020 has clearly stated that dense mangrove belts on land measuring 10,000 square feet had been wiped-off for the construction of the shrine. We sought the intervention of the upper tehsildar-Nilesh Gaund on June, 16, 2023. However, no action was taken by him for over a year clearly indicating that he was sheltering his subordinates, prompting us to file a complaint with the CMO.” said Khandelwal.
Taking a serious note of the allegations, the CMO in its letter dated April, 25, 2024 directed the SDM to verify the complaint and take needed action. Subsequently, the SDM which claims to have received the directions on May, 7 scheduled a hearing on the matter at 11 am on Friday (5, July). However, the hearing was postponed to July 15.
On Security Radar
Khandelwal has also filed a civil public interest litigation (PIL) in the high court on 2, March, 2024 against the massive illegal constructions and destruction of protected mangrove belts. Apart from facing allegations of illegal encroachments, the shrine is also under the scanner owing to concerns raised by security agencies following reports about frequent visits of anti-national elements.
However, the trust has rubbished the allegations while continuing to maintain that the dargah has been in existence for over more than two centuries ever since the saint -Sayyed Bale Shah Peer came and stayed here.
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