Adarsh scam: Wanchoo targets Chavan

Brigadier (retired) M M Wanchoo, promoter of Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society, has told a judicial panel investigating the scam that former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had personally suggested to raise the number of civilians in the society.

Wanchoo deposed before the commission on Monday.

Pertinently, the Adarsh Housing Society was mainly built for defence personnel and war widows.

Wanchoo said society secretary R C Thakur and ex-Congress MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani met Chavan, who was the Revenue Minister at that time, in 2000.

"This meeting was about Adarsh's proposal seeking land in south Mumbai," Wanchoo told the panel.

"As per Government Resolution of 1999, we knew we had to include 20 per cent civilians," he said.

"If I remember correctly, it was Revenue Minister Ashok Chavan who suggested inclusion of additional 20 per cent civilian members," he said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this month filed a chargesheet in the Adarsh Housing society scam.

The probe agency filed the 10,000-page chargesheet nearly two years after the scandal came to fore.

All 14 accused, including Ashok Chavan, have been named in the chargesheet.

Chavan had to resign in after he became one of the 14 people accused in the First Information Report (FIR) connected to the scam last year.

The 30-storey apartment, housing many top level defence officials, was built on a disputed army land at Colaba and it is alleged that the flats meant for the families of the Kargil martyrs were allotted to top defence officials and kins of politicians.