Defence Ministry to contest Adarsh report in SC

CNN-IBN | 17-Apr 17:44 PM

Mumbai: The judicial commission probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam tabled its report in the Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday and, in a breather to the politicians facing the heat over the alleged scam, said there was no evidence to support the claim that the apartment was built on defence land or that it was reserved for Kargil War widows.

The Defence Ministry has said it will challenge the report in the Supreme Court regarding the ownership of land on which Adarsh Housing Society stands. The allegations are that the 31-storey apartment in Mumbai's Colaba was meant for Kargil War widows and war heroes, but most of the flats were cornered by senior politicians, bureaucrats and defence officers.

The report by the two-member judicial commission headed by Bombay High Court judge JA Patil and including former state chief secretary P Subramanian, however, added that the land was in defence possession for an extended period.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), meanwhile, has said that the report will have "no impact" on its investigations into the scam, as it is probing "corruption and not ownership of land".

In a statement, the CBI said, "The Commission report has no bearing or relevance to our investigation. Our investigations pertain to provisions of anti-corruption, misuse of office, violation of all possible norms, criminal conspiracy, using forged records."

It added, "It has been established that commissions are only meant for providing information to the state."

Former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, meanwhile, said that the report had vindicated the state's stance.

"The authentic report has been placed on the floor of the House. So unless and until, I go through it, it will be very difficult. Because on what grounds they have commented on it will be hard to tell... The CAG report is not coming out for the first time... This is a routine matter, every year they come out, then go before the House, then before the PAC..."

"From day one, we have been telling that the land belongs to the state government and accordingly, it was allotted to the society as per the land dispersal rules of the government... So with this report, I think our stand is totally vindicated. The ownership of the land and whether there was any reservation for the Kargil land widows... that was the main contention on which the whole hype was created... Now these two issues were very critical and they have been vindicated. The other issues are now before the Commission," said Deshmukh.

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