In his complaint, filed by advocate Clifford Martis, Chimbulkar alleged that the Social Welfare Department under Gholap, siphoned off around Rs 64 lakh to one Sudhir Gandhi for 196 electric motors and 196 power looms, which were never supplied to the corporation.

According to the complaint, the then managing director of the Vasantrao Naik Vimukta Jati ani Bhatkya Development Corporation, H R Tikekar, had placed orders with one Sudhir Gandhi of Shivangi Industries for 550 power looms and 550 electric motors without calling for any tenders.

Tikekar entered into an agreement to pay Gandhi Rs 1.82 crore for the power looms and motors, ofwhich Rs 1.42 crore was given on September 15, 1995. On October 20, 1995, Gholap ordered that the second demand draft should not be fowarded to him, and reverted the order by evening.

Gandhi, however, supplied only 354 power looms and 354 electric motors and allegedly siphoned off Rs 64,11,800 -- the cost of the remaining 196 power looms and electric motors.

The complainant alleges that the decision to pay Gandhi without looking into his credentials, or taking any performance guarantee or security from him, was done with malafide intentions, to which the Gholap, the then Social Welfare Department secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad and the then deputy secretary of the Department, V B Sonawane, were party.

In his complaint, Chimbulkar alleged that the office-bearers of the Vasantrao Naik Corporation which included, besides Tikekar, the then assistant manager of the project M E Girhe and the then assistant manager (Finance) of the corporation Virendra Jadhav, had formulated the project for power looms and electricmotors without discussion or coordination with the Maharashtra State Power Loom Corporation Limited, or even studying the project's forward or backward linkages.

Even after the agreement was signed with Gandhi, the office-bearers did not take any security from him and accepted post-dated cheques which became inoperative in six months, because they were not deposited in the bank, it alleges.

When Tikekar was transferred, Sonawane was given additional charge of managing director from June 26, 1996 to July 18, 1996. The complainant points out that Sonawane helped in the deal, and added Sonawane is charged in another misappropriation case relating to the Mahatma Phule Corporation.

The V N Corporation office-bearers also took as mortgage Gandhi's property, which had already been mortgaged to the Mahatma Phule Corporation.

Chimbulkar has alleged that there was a pattern to the fraud committed by the Department on the Backward Class Development Corporation, under its purview.

Accusing Gaikwad ofcomplicity, the complaint stated that as the then secretary of the Social Welfare Department, he was the ``immediate boss'' in the Corporation and all welfare schemes had to be channelised through him since he had to give them the final seal of approval.

The scam was brought to light with Navnath Awad, who was made the corporation's managing director, complained to Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde. Munde's letter to the Anti-Corruption Bureau led to the investigations, and this resulted in the complaint, Martis said.

The complaint, a second by the Janata Dal against the Social Welfare Department under Gholap, tightens the noose of corruption charges around the Minister.

He recently won a court case against social worker Anna Hazare in which he claimed he was defamed by Hazare, who charged him of being corrupt. Gholap's personal assistant Sanjay Pagare was recently arrested for embezzlement of Rs 6 crore by the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch.