Former Army chief refutes allegations on Adarsh scam

Refuting all allegations, Kapoor clarified that he owned a flat in the controversial Adarsh Society in south Mumbai, which he had returned, and a plot in Gurgaon that he received from the Haryana government.

Kapoor’s clarifications come in the wake of Trinamool Congress MP Ambica Banerjee’s letter to the prime minister and defence minister in which he charged the general with owning a flat in Dwarka sector 29, three houses in Gurgaon and a pent house in Lokhandwala.

Even though Banerjee wrote the letter in August and received an acknowledgment within days, it has surfaced only after the scam on Adarsh society broke out.
Interestingly, within months of receiving the 448-sq mt plot from the Haryana government at a price much below the market rate, Kapoor wrote to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda seeking waiver of a clause that allows some of the allotees to sell their land within five years. The Haryana government, however, did not accede to Kapoor’s request.Though Kapoor denied allegations of wrong-doing in the Adarsh housing society scam in television interviews, he shunned the media completely on the fresh set of allegations against him.

Banerjee in Kolkata said he was under the impression that Kapoor possessed disproportionate assets beyond his known sources of income, which should be looked into. The MP said he had received a letter from Antony assuring that the charges would be looked into.

Kapoor’s tenure as the chief of the Army staff remained a controversial one, which culminated in the high-profile Sukhna land deal controversy in which Kapoor reportedly favoured former military secretary Lt Gen Avdesh Prakash. A court-martial procedure is currently going on against Gen Prakash and another senior general.

In 2005 when Kapoor was the General Officer Commanding in Chief for the northern command, his name surfaced in questionable procurement of tent and other equipment. But when Kapoor’s successor in northern command Lt Gen H S Panag initiated the probing, Kapoor as the Army chief shifted him to the central command triggering another controversy.

Panag appraised Antony about the corruption charges, but no action was taken by the defence ministry. The Army probe found two junior officers guilty and actions were taken against them.

CBI seeks I-T returns of owners
Mumbai, dhns: The high and the mighty, who own plush flats in the controversial Adarsh Housing Society at Colaba here, have been asked to furnish income tax returns by the CBI which is probing the corruption angle in the scam. The anti-corruption unit of the investigating agency has approached the Society managing committee and has sought all correspondence it had made with the Central and the state governments as well as with the Army and the Navy to get various permissions and sanctions. It is said to be the second approach by the CBI. Its first request last month was stonewalled by the Society. Several other flat owners are bureaucrats whose incomes are well documented. The moot question is how these officials could then afford flats worth Rs 75 to Rs 90 lakh., whose current market price is not less than Rs 7-8 crore.