Mumbai:
In a major development, former Defence personnel are going to be deposing before the judicial panel probing the Adarsh Society scam. Retired Lieutenant General GS Sihota will today depose before the commission
Lt Gen GS Sihota (Retd) was the area commander when AR Kumar, one of the accused in the case, was posted as an officer in the defence estate office. Mr Kumar was allegedly instrumental in giving the controversial No Objection Certificate or NoC from the Defence Ministry to the state government for construction of Adarsh building.
Former Army chiefs General Deepak Kapoor and General NC Vij will also appear before the commission later on the week. They had got membership in the controversial society when Vilasrao Deshmukh was the chief minister. After the controversy emerged, they gave up the flats.
There are multiple agencies probing the Adarsh scandal, including the judicial commission which was set up by the Maharashtra government after the outcry over the scam. The commission is probing the ownership of the land and whether it was reserved for Kargil War heroes.
The interim report submitted by the commission stated that the land belongs to the state. Three former chief minister of Maharashtra who have deposed before the panel - Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh - too have maintained that the land belonged to the state.
However, the Defence Ministry have from the very beginning claimed that the land is owned by them. So, the deposition of these key Defence personnel will start an interesting legal battle over the ownership of the land.
Last week, the CBI had filed its 10,000-page chargesheet in which it named former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan among 13 others including senior bureaucrats and retired defence personnel in the multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society scam. The chargesheet was filed before the Registrar of a sessions court, nearly 18 months after the investigating agency registered a case.
The CBI charged Mr Chavan with cheating, criminal conspiracy and for criminal conduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act, for recommending the allotment of 40 per cent of flats to civilians in what was supposed to be a society for Kargil War heroes and widows. The CBI alleged, as quid pro quo, three of Mr Chavan's relatives allegedly got flats in the society. Later, Mr Chavan also granted building concessions by changing the area's development plan.