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As Congress leader Ashok Chavan ended his three-decade association with the party, a list of scams mentioned in the central government’s ‘white paper’ report mentions the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society case, in which the former Maharashtra Chief Minister was named.
It is alleged to be one of the reasons for Chavan’s decision to break all ties with the party, but he denied this and said that “the happenings from my past have nothing to do with my present decision”.
The 65-year-old MLA from Bhokar clarified that his next course of action would be charted in a couple of days and said he was not willing to “wash dirty linen in public” and hence, would not discuss the issues he had with the Congress publicly.
WHAT IS THE ADARSH SCAM?
With Chavan’s resignation from the Congress, the spotlight is back on the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society case. The scam is related to a 31-storey apartment complex, called the Adarsh Housing Society, built in Colaba in South Mumbai on a land that belonged to the Ministry of Defence.
In 2010, it was revealed that politicians, some bureaucrats and military officials colluded to violate rules concerning land ownership and other norms to get flats allotted to themselves and their relatives. Some of Chavan’s relatives had figured in the list of beneficiaries when Chavan was the Maharashtra Chief Minister when the matter came to light.
Following this, Chavan was forced to resign and a chargesheet was also filed in which he appeared as accused number 11.
The hearing in the case started in July 2012. However, even after 12 years, the trial court, till date, has not been able to take note of the chargesheet.
Chavan had challenged his prosecution without a sanction being accorded. The Bombay High Court had rejected his contention and the former Congress leader challenged it in the Supreme Court. There, his Congress colleagues Kapil Sibal (now an independent Rajya Sabha MP after quitting Congress) and Salman Khurshid appeared for him.
On January 11, 2018, a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kaul put a hold on “further proceedings” pending before the Special Judge for CBI Cases, Mumbai. Since then, the Mumbai Sessions Court has not proceeded with the case.
The Supreme Court is likely to hear a plea in connection with the case on Wednesday. However, this date is only a tentative date that is computer-generated.
In the Adarsh scam, apart from Chavan, the other accused facing prosecution charges are Ram Chandra Sonelal Thakur, Brig. (retd.) Madan Mohan Wanchu, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, Maj Gen. (retd.) AR Kumar, Maj. Gen (retd.) Tej Krishan Kaul, Brig (retd.) Tara Kant Sinha, Prabhakar Deshmukh, Ramanand Tiwari, Subhash Lalla, Dr Pradeep Vyas, Dr Jairaj Pathak and Rajinder Bakshi.
Gidwani, a former Congress legislator, died in 2018 while awaiting trial.
