The committee was to take a decision on retired deputy chief engineer D S Kurmi and executive engineer H P Shah who had serious charges leveled against them. The inquiry report submitted by BMC had recommended a 25 per cent reduction in pension for Kurmi who had five charges leveled against him and a demotion to the post of assistant engineer for Shah.

However, the standing committee instead of giving its approval to the inquiry findings has given the proposal back to municipal commissioner for further reconsideration. “We think that the punishment meted out to the two officials is very harsh as compared to the other civic officials who were also found guilty,” said standing committee Chairman, Ravindra Waikar.

Initial investigations by BMC in 2003 had revealed that Kurmi and Shah along with N R Rajbhar of the Building Proposals Department had played a major role in granting permission for carrying out repairs on the controversial project. Also, the conduct of the two officials permitting the unauthorised and illegal construction was found to be highly suspicious.

The investigations also led to a preliminary inquiry committee being set up, which revealed that nine other engineers and officers of the BMC—VN Deshpande (assistant engineer), SV Bhat (senior engineer), VD Samant (senior engineer), KV Achrekar (assistant commissioner), AP Pawar (assistant engineer), SM Salvekar (assistant engineer), PS Patil (senior engineer) and MB Halikar (joint engineer—were involved in the scam.