Mumbai, May 24: A two-member commission probing the Adarsh scam has extended the deadline till May 26 for former Chief Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan to file their affidavits on the allegations that they had “misused” office to dole out favours to the controversial housing society.
The Commission, comprising retired Bombay High Court Judge JA Patil and ex-State Chief Secretary P Subramanyam, also gave additional three days’ time to the then Minister of State for Urban Development Department (UDD) Sunil Tatakare, who is currently the State Water Resources Minister, to file his say on the allegations vis-a-vis the Adarsh scam.
Deshmukh, Shinde, Chavan and Tatkare were to have filed by their say before the Commission by Monday (May 23) on their respective roles in the allotment of land and grant of various concessions to the Adarsh society, which has constructed a 31-storey building at Colaba in south Mumbai.
The Commission, which is looking into the alleged irregularities in the allotment of land and various concessions given to the Adarsh society by public servants and various Government agency officials, has made available to Deshmukh, Shinde, Chavan and Tatkare the affidavits filed some of the important witnesses, including suspended Maharashtra Information Commissioner (SIC) Ramanand Tiwari, and some NGOs, who have thrown light on the role by each of them in the scam.
Confirming that Deshmukh, Shinde, Chavan and Tatkare had been given time till May 26 to file their say, the Commission’s counsel Dipan Merchant said, “While filing their affidavits, we wanted them to respond to the issues raised by some of the witnesses, including some NGO representatives. That’s why we have given them the affidavits filed by these witnesses so that the four can respond to the allegations made by the witnesses concerned in the affidavits in question”.
Chavan, who resigned on November 9 last year for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam, has been named as one of the 13 accused by the CBI probing scam. Chavan had allotted flats in the controversial Adarsh building to his (now late) mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma and two of his relatives, Seema Vinod Sharma and Madanlal Milkiram Sharma.
In its FIR filed in January this year, the CBI has, among other things, alleged that Chavan had “abused” his official position and doled out undue favours to the controversial Adarsh housing society, with an “ulterior motive” to ensure flat allotments for his relatives in the Adarsh society.
——–Agencies