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Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr Ashok Chavan was among the 13 people chargesheeted by the CBI in the Adarsh scam today. The Congress leader is accused of granting some approvals to the upscale housing society here as a quid pro quo for allotment of two flats to his relatives.
Mr Chavan described the 10,000-page chargesheet as “unfortunate and unexpected” and accused his political rivals of trying to implicate him.
The scam had forced him to quit as the State Chief Minister in November 2010.
“The Adarsh housing is only an administrative matter. However, there is a conspiracy by my rivals to malign me. The Adarsh issue has been blown out of proportion,” he told reporters after the chargesheet was filed in the Sessions court.
The central probe agency had registered a case in the scam in the housing society in Colaba on January 29 last year under IPC sections including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and showing forged documents as genuine, besides sections pertaining to Prevention of Corruption Act.
In its chargesheet, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged Mr Chavan with approving additional Floor Space Index (FSI) for the housing society during his tenure as the Chief Minister and alleged that he gave these approvals as a quid pro quo for getting flats allotted to his mother-in-law and brother-in-law.
The CBI also accused Chavan of illegally approving allotment of 40 per cent of flats for civilians in the housing society, which was meant for Kargil widows and war heroes, during his tenure as Revenue Minister in 2001-03. He had dealt with files pertaining to ownership of land.
The chargesheet also named retired Army officers – Brig (retd) M. M. Wanchoo, Major Generals T. K. Kaul and A. R. Kumar, Colonels T. K. Sinha and R. Bakshi, ex-Congress MLC Mr K. L. Gidwani, IAS officer Mr Jairaj Phatak and former CIC Mr Ramanand Tiwari.
Besides them, society members Mr R. C. Thakur, Mr P. V. Deshmukh, Mr Subhash Lala and Mr Pradeep Vyas have also been named by the CBI
The chargesheet came notwithstanding the claims made by the Maharashtra Government before the Bombay High Court that the agency had no jurisdiction in probing the case.
The CBI informed the Bombay High Court that it was going to file a chargesheet in the case after which the agency submitted the document in the Sessions Court.
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