Shaken by mid-day’s exposé on the land mafia operating with impunity in Vasai despite a recent mudslide killing a man and his daughter, the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission has asked six municipal commissioners, collectors and forest department heads from Mumbai and Thane to explain the brazen crime. Anticipating a crackdown, more than 70 developers and real estate agents from Vasai have shut their shops and removed their names and display banners.

In its front-page report of July 19, this newspaper showed how the chawl-builder mafias were back in business barely a week after the Vasai landslide. mid-day’s Diwakar Sharma, Shirish Vaktania and Anurag Kamble conducted an in-depth investigation at Vasai, Mumbai and Thane to expose agents and developers involved in the construction and sale of illegal houses on hilltops that pose huge risks to the occupants.