Somaiyas have gone underground: Raut on case against them over INS Vikrant fund collection

PTI, Apr 9, 2022, 3:22 PM IST

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Saturday claimed that BJP leader Kirit Somaiya and his son Neil, who have been summoned by police for alleged misappropriation of funds collected for turning decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant into a museum, have gone underground.

Talking to reporters here, Raut also also said that the Somaiya father-son duo have moved an application for anticipatory bail.

”If you haven’t done any wrong why fear?” the Shiv Sena leader asked.

Mumbai police on Friday said the Somaiyas have been summoned to join the probe and asked to remain present before the investigating officer at Trombay police station in suburban Mankhurd.

”Police had gone to issue summons to them. But their home in Mulund east was locked,” a police official had said on Friday.

Raut has accused Somaiya of misappropriation of over Rs 57 crore collected in the name saving the ship. A case was registered against the Somaiyas based on a complaint lodged against them by a former Army personnel Baban Bhosale. Commissioned in 1961, INS Vikrant, a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy, had played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

It was decommissioned in 1997. There was a demand to convert the warship into a museum. But in January 2014, the ship was sold through an online auction and scrapped in November that year.