Mumbai: Sanjeev Jaiswal, vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), has been no stranger to controversies.
On Friday, the IAS officer from the 1996 batch kicked off another one, drawing the ire of the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and leading to a section of residents of a MHADA colony to demand his transfer.
Addressing residents of Motilal Nagar in Goregaon about the plan for the colony’s redevelopment, Jaiswal asked a resident, sporting a beard and holding a placard demanding bigger houses, to show his identity card to determine if he was a ‘ghuskhor‘ (encroacher).
The resident was identified as 38-year-old Jalaluddin Kachwa.
On the same day, the residents of Motilal Nagar wrote a complaint to the Goregaon Police station, demanding that an FIR be filed against Jaiswal saying his behaviour was “absolutely inappropriate, illegal and discriminatory.
A copy of the letter, signed by several residents of Motilal Nagar, was also sent to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM and Housing Minister Eknath Shinde, chief secretary Rajesh Aggarwal, and Mumbai CP Deven Bharti. The letter demands that Jaiswal be immediately suspended and that there should be a judicial inquiry set up against him.
A source at the CMO said that while Fadnavis hasn’t intervened in the current controversy yet, the civil servant is known to be short-tempered. The CM, the source said, counselled the officer once in the past.
Jaiswal and MHADA spokesperson Vaishali Sadansingh did not respond to ThePrint’s call and text message.
Congress MP Varsha Gaikwad criticised Jaiswal’s statement as an example of how the Mahayuti government is allegedly forcing citizens to “give up their democratic rights.”
“This is clear proof that Maharashtra’s administration is working for the Adani…the government harbours the desire for residents to kneel before the Adanis and for that it has used officers to intimidate citizens,” Gaikwad said, in a post on X on Sunday.
Surrender Sarkar forcing citizens to surrender democratic rights!
Clear proof that Maharashtra's bureaucracy works for Adani. This is the MHADA CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal threatening a resident of Motilal Nagar who was present with placards protesting the take over of their land by… pic.twitter.com/RuXLKdesqz
— Prof. Varsha Eknath Gaikwad (@VarshaEGaikwad) April 19, 2026
The Adani Group won the bid to redevelop Motilal Nagar, spread over 143 acre in Goregaon West, for which it will invest nearly Rs 1 lakh crore, Jaiswal had said during the presentation on Friday.
Jaiswal’s language was “inappropriate” and he should apologise to residents, BJP MLC Pravin Darekar told reporters Sunday.
‘If you turn out to be a ghuskhor’
Jallaluddin Kachwa, who works as a human resources personnel with a recruitment firm, said he was born in Motilal Nagar.
“I was simply making my demand heard. I have all the required papers to show that I have been born here and been living in Motilal Nagar since my birth,” Kachwa told ThePrint.
On Friday, at the event, Kachwa stood up holding a placard demanding houses of 2,400 square feet. As per the master plan for the redevelopment of Motilal Nagar, over 3,700 families there will receive houses of 1,600 sq ft each in carpet area.
In the video of the event, which media persons also attended, Jaiswal asked him to speak in Marathi. “Do you really not know Marathi? Sit down. Don’t try to make me explore whether you are a ‘ghuskor’ (encroacher), you are a what. Police, go and get the identity card of that man.”
Jaiswal further said, “I will find out everything. From where you have come, when you have come here, which year, where you were born. I will find out everything. I will find it. And if you turn out to be a ‘ghuskhor’, I will take you away from here itself.”
In the police complaint, the residents of Motilal Nagar said, “A youngster from Motilal Nagar named Jalaluddin Kachwa was peacefully holding up a banner of his demands. At that time, Sanjeev Jaiswal threatened him and made comments that were discriminatory, casteist and communal in nature. Looking at his beard, he was alleged to be a Bangladeshi ghuskhor.”
In the complaint, the residents further said, Motilal Nagar colony has been in existence since 1961 and has residents of different castes and religions.
Past controversies
In December 2024, there were two cross FIRs filed at the Nirmal Nagar police station. One was filed by a MHADA employee against retired police sub inspector Vijay Chalke for allegedly disrupting the functioning of a government office. The retired sub inspector had visited the MHADA office along with a few other persons to complain about not receiving timely rent while their housing society is under redevelopment.
The retired sub inspector, in turn, filed another case against Jaiswal and a few others for having allegedly threatened and intimidated him. According to the FIR, a copy of which ThePrint has seen, Jaiswal allegedly slapped Chalke. Further, he alleged, 10-12 of his security persons also allegedly roughed him up.
In 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Jaiswal in connection with a money laundering probe into the alleged misappropriation of funds related to the jumbo Covid centres erected during the pandemic. He was the additional municipal commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) when the centres were erected.
During a search of his residence, the ED had said that the agency found that Jaiswal and his wife own 24 properties worth Rs 34 crore, including a half acre plot at Madh Island and several flats. The couple, the ED said, also had Rs 15 crore worth of fixed deposits. Jaiswal had reportedly said that most of it was gifted to his wife by her father, a retired IRS officer, mother and grandparents.
In 2021, Jaiswal locked horns with former Congress corporator Sanjay Ghadigaonkar, whom he alleged of harassing him by registering multiple complaints with various departments during his tenure as Thane Municipal Commissioner and later as the BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner.
While he was the municipal chief of Thane, Jaiswal had shocked corporators by asking the general body to pass a no-confidence motion against him, so that the government would be compelled to transfer him, and that if he was not transferred, he would go on a long leave.
Jaiswal had become a popular civic chief by dealing with encroachments with an iron first, bringing in waste recycling projects, introducing electronic AC buses on Thane’s roads and so on. However, he had very frequent disputes with the political representatives
In 2020, Jaiswal eventually wrote to the chief secretary seeking a transfer, and decided to go on a leave till his transfer comes. The breaking point came over a supposed dispute between him and some civic officials over internal postings within the Thane Municipal Corporation.
A Shiv Sena corporator read out a purported WhatsApp exchange between civic officials and Jaiswal in the house where the civil servant allegedly called officials “backstabbers and pimps of politicians.”
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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