BJP's Kirit Somaiya gets clean chit in INS Vikrant case; Mumbai police report suggests closure

Mumbai Police's EOW team has given a clean chit to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya in the alleged misappropriation of donations collected to restore the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant.

Mumbai (Maharashtra):Mumbai Police's EOW team has given BJP leader Kirit Somaiya a clean chit in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds collected to restore the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has filed a C summary report before the court last evening.

The police file a C Summary report when the case is neither true nor false due to mistake of facts or the offence complained about is of a civil nature, the information given to police may be neither true nor false. The case pertains to Somaiya and his son Neil Somaiya for the financial bungling related to on the complaint of a former soldier Baban Bhosle.

The complainant claimed to have donated Rs 2,000 for the cause and had learnt in 2014 that the warship had been scrapped and auctioned to a company for Rs 60 crore. The Somaiyas were framed for alleged misappropriation of over Rs 57 crore funds collected to save the decommissioned aircraft carrier through their campaign.

INS Vikrant, a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, commissioned in 1961, played a crucial role during the Indo-Pak war of 1971. Decommissioned in 1997, the ship was sold through an online auction in January 2014 and was scrapped in November the same year.