A last minute bureaucratic hitch in granting sanctions on Tuesday delayed CBI’s charge sheet in the multi-crore Adarsh housing society scam, which has been filed today.
The 10,000-page CBI charge sheet was filed before the Registrar of a sessions court, nearly 18 months after the
agency registered a case.
Lawyer YP Singh, who has been seeking action in the case, told CNN IBN he had received a copy of the charge sheet and said the CBI had failed to file any serious charges against former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan or any of the other accused. He also alleged that the investigations had not been conducted properly by the CBI.
“It is a political conspiracy against me by my rivals and keep me out of public life…I was not connected with allocation of land for the society or membership for it. I have full faith in the judiciary,” former chief minister Ashok Chavan told CNN IBN.
The CBI has registered a case on 29 January 2011 against Chavan and 13 others which included bureaucrats and retired army personnel.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan. Reuters
CBI had in March 2012 arrested nine out of the 14 accused after the Bombay high court for not initiating action against those accused in the case.
The nine who were arrested are – RC Thakur, secretary of Adarsh, retired brigadier MM Wanchoo, former Congress MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, both promoters of the society, former deputy secretary of urban development department PV Deshmukh, IAS officers Ramanand Tiwari and Jairaj Phatak, retired major generals AR Kumar and TK Kaul and former city collector Pradeep Vyas.
They were released on bail by a special CBI court after CBI failed to file chargesheet within the stipulated 60-day period after arrest. All nine had been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
However, Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Chavan have not been arrested in the case. All three have passed the blame on who was responsible for approving the building of the controversial housing society.
