CBI chargesheet in Adarsh scam likely Tuesday

Mumbai: The CBI is likely to file its first chargesheet in the Adarsh Housing scam on Tuesday against some of the members of the upscale society, 18 months after a case was registered in this connection. The scam had fuelled a political storm in Maharashtra that led to the resignation of Ashok Chavan as chief minister. Chavan is among the 14 accused in the case in which Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde are also under the scanner.[caption id=“attachment_364376” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] According to official sources, a chargesheet would be filed on Tuesday, a day before the case comes up before Bombay High Court which is hearing a bunch of public interest litigations seeking the court’s supervision of the probe. The CBI on 18 June had assured the high court that it would file a chargesheet in the case before 4 July as the agency had to take prior sanction from the government to prosecute bureaucrats. It was expected that the first chargesheet may not name any bureaucrat or public servant as the High Court had suggested to the CBI that it could first file chargesheet against those accused for whom sanction was not required. “At least file the chargesheet. You (CBI) can procure sanction later for the bureaucrats,” a division bench of Justices SA Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar had said on the last date of hearing. The CBI has registered a case on 29 January last year against Chavan and 13 others which included bureaucrats and retired army personnel. CBI had in March this year arrested nine out of the 14 accused after receiving a rap on its knuckles from the high court for not initiating action against the accused persons. The nine arrested accused 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. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act. PTI