Maharashtra government questions CBI probe into Adarsh scam

In a strange turn of events, the Maharashtra government has questioned the jurisdiction of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in probing the Adarsh housing society scam.

About 18 months after the premier agency launched investigations into the scam, and just 10 days before it is scheduled to file its charge-sheet, the state government backed the promoters of the housing society in raising questions about the jurisdiction of the CBI.

The CBI has registered FIRs against several politicians – including a former chief minister – top bureaucrats and military officers, besides arresting some of them. Of course, all those arrested by the CBI have been granted bail by the court, as the agency failed to file the charge-sheets within the stipulated time.

The Maharashtra government's counsel told the Bombay high court on Monday that it had not entrusted the CBI the task of probing the scam.

He said a judicial commission appointed by the government had submitted its report; the commission had reiterated the government's claim that the land, in upmarket Cuffe Parade in Mumbai, where the 31-storeyed building has come up, belonged to it, and not the defence ministry. The latter has of course disputed the claim.

Adarsh housing society was promoted by a former legislator, ostensibly to provide shelter for widows of soldiers killed in Kargil. However, several politicians (including three former chief ministers), bureaucrats and army officials, and their relatives, managed to get apartments allotted in their names in the building.