Special court closes case against South Mumbai hotelier Jitendra Navlani

MUMBAI: A special court on Wednesday closed a case registered against South Mumbai hotelier Jitendra Navlani, after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut accused him of working as a conduit for certain Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials and collecting money from business establishments to protect them from probe by the anti-money laundering agency.
Additional sessions judge AA Nandgaonkar on Wednesday accepted the C-summary report submitted by additional prosecutor Ramesh Siroya, seeking closure of the case against the South Mumbai businessman. A C-summary report, also known as a closure report, is filed by the police when they conclude that a criminal case does not have enough evidence to proceed further.
The case against Navlani was registered after Sanjay Raut alleged on March 8, 2022, that Navlani was running an extortion racket along with three ED officials, targeting businessmen from the city and state and offering them protection from ED inquiries in lieu of money.
“A key name in this network is Jitendra Chandralal Navlani. He has seven companies in which funds have come from over 100 builders. The companies, which were under ED probe, have transferred the money to these seven companies. Navlani works for senior ED officials, including directors and joint directors,” Raut had alleged.
Citing an example, Raut had claimed that in 2017, ED probed Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. Subsequently, ₹25 crore were transferred from Dewan Housing Finance to Navlani’s seven companies. Till March 31, 2020, an additional ₹15 crore were transferred to Navlani’s companies, the documents showed.
The ACB had registered a case on May 5, 2022, against Navlani and ‘unknown others’, under Section 8 (taking gratification, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servants) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The FIR was registered following a formal complaint lodged by Shiv Sena (UBT) functionary Arvind Bhosle, after Raut claimed to have “exposed the biggest corruption by ED officials” and listed 70 bank transactions worth ₹58.93 crore remitted to bank accounts associated with Navlani.
Bhosale, in his letter to the Mumbai police commissioner, did not name any specific ED officials. The letter simply stated “unknown personnel of the Enforcement Directorate of the western region” but mentioned the name of the hotelier.
In January 2023, the ACB filed a C-summary report, seeking to close the case, indicating that on investigation, the police found the allegations were neither true nor false. The Anti-Corruption Burreau (ACB) had sought closure of the case, contending that they did not find any substance in the allegations leveled by Raut.
In his closure report, assistant commissioner of police, Harshal Chavan, of the ACB stated that they found that the companies owned/controlled by Navlani had received a total of ₹58.96 crore from 39 companies/business establishments between 2015 and 2021, but the transactions were part of the routine business between the companies owned/controlled by the hotelier. He added that there was no substance in the allegations that these amounts were received by him as bribe amounts for the ED officials, meant for not acting against the establishments.