CBI Charge sheets Ashok Chavan, others in Adarsh society scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday filed a charge sheet in multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society scam case against 13 persons including former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan at a special CBI court in Mumbai.

The investigating agency filled its first charge sheet containing 10,000-page before the Registrar of a sessions court, nearly 18 months after registering the case. CBI has booked several senior bureaucrats and defence officials in its first charge sheet.

Before filling charge sheet in the session court, CBI informed to Bombay High Court where HC is hearing a case of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) pertaining to Adrash scam. The PIL batch was seeking court's supervision for the probe in this case.

A political storm had occurred when this scam came into lime light through a sting operation. It cost to Ashok Chavan and several senior defence officials by loosing their position.

The case was registered by CBI on January 29, 2011 against 14 accused including Chavan on the direction of the Bombay HC. CBI arrested nine out of 14 accused of this case in March 2011 but could not submit charge sheet against them within the stipulated 60-day period after arrest, so all the arrested accused were released on bail.

The nine arrested accused were - R C Thakur, secretary of Adarsh, retired brigadier M M Wanchoo, former Congress MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, both promoters of the society, former deputy secretary of urban development department P V Deshmukh, IAS officers Ramanand Tiwari and Jairaj Phatak, retired major generals A R Kumar and T K Kaul and former city collector Pradeep Vyas.

They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption Act.

--With Agencies Inputs--