Adarsh Society scam: CBI to soon examine Deshmukh

The agency, which had registered a case against 14 people including former chief minister Ashok Chavan, had on July 31 recorded the statement of Union minister Sushil Kumar Shinde after taking the requisite permission.

Both Shinde and Deshmukh, at present Union minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, had dealt with files and passed proposals pertaining to the 31-storey plush building in south Mumbai, which was allegedly granted permissions after flouting rules and regulations.

"Deshmukh's statement would also be recorded soon. The minister is only a witness as of now," a senior official in CBI said here today. CBI, which had registered the FIR in the scam in January, is likely to file charge sheet against the 14 accused soon. The Bombay High Court had yesterday directed the agency to expedite its investigations and submit charge sheet at the earliest.

During his tenure as the chief minister, Deshmukh, who was also heading Urban Development Department, gave approval to a proposal made by the society seeking deletion of an adjoining land reserved for BEST and change it to residential type.

Deshmukh had, however, refuted allegations that he had showed undue favour to Adarsh and had told a judicial panel set up to probe the case that the deletion of reservation of the plot reserved for BEST and its conversion to residential purposes was in accordance with law.

"Neither was any loss caused to the state exchequer nor any favour was shown. The reservation was changed following the procedure prescribed under MRTP. The interests of BEST were protected," Deshmukh had said in his affidavit before the commission.

CBI, which was handed over the probe by the Defence Ministry, registered a case on January 29 against 14 people including Ashok Chavan, retired army officials and bureaucrats.

The agency has questioned over 100 witnesses in the case and some of the accused including former commissioner of BMC Jairaj Phatak, Congress leader K L Gidwani, suspended state information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari, former deputy secretary of state urban development department P V Deshmukh and Adarsh society's secretary R C Thakur.