JOIN USBarely a week after a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court granted bail to seven of the nine accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the remaining two filed fresh bail applications here Monday.
Former Mumbai municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak and retired information commissioner Ramanand Tiwari applied for bail in the court of Special Judge M.V. Kulkarni, CBI lawyer Ejaz Khan told IANS.
"Their applications will come up for hearing on Wednesday," Khan added.
In their applications, Phatak and Tiwari say the CBI failed to file charge sheets against them even 60 days after their arrest. Earlier on May 29, the court had granted bail to the seven accused on the same ground.
The CBI, however, claimed that it has 30 more days to act. The central probe agency is likely to file the charge sheets next month.
The accused in the scam who have been freed on bail include Maj. Gen. (retd) A.R. Kumar, Maj. Gen. (retd) T.K. Kaul, retired defence estates officer R.C. Thakur, Brig. (retd) M.M. Wanchoo, former Indian Administrative Service officers P.V. Deshmukh and Pradeep Vyas, and former Congress politician Kanhaiyalal Gidwani.
The bail was granted on a surety of Rs.500,000 each and the accused were directed to report at the CBI office in Mumbai every Tuesday and Thursday.
Many top army officials and politicians, including former chief Minister Ashok Chavan, are alleged to have facilitated clearances for the housing society's building and got flats in it as quid pro quo.
The scam involves a prime plot in south Mumbai's Colaba area on which a 31-storey building was constructed by the society.