No proof to nail Shinde in Adarsh scam, CBI tells HC

The Bombay high court on Wednesday told the Central Bureau of Investigation to be impartial in investigating Mumbai's Adarsh housing scam case, and clarified that it has not asked the agency to go after any particular person while investigating the case.

"Conduct the investigation impartially and treat everybody equally," the high court bench of justices Ranjana Desai and R G Ketkar told the CBI when it submitted its progress report on the Adarsh inquiry, as mandated by the court.

According to an Indian Express report, the CBI has told the court that most key approvals involving the Adarsh Housing Society were given by union minister Sushilkumar Shinde when he was the chief minister of Maharashtra in 2003-04, but there is nothing ''incriminating'' yet to accuse him of wrongdoing in the scandal.

The newspaper says it has seen the CBI's confidential progress report submitted to the court about its probe into the 31-storey apartment building in South Mumbai, alleged to have been built in violation of several laws. The report also details the role played by another union minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, when he was chief minister of the state.

''Application for allotment of the land to clearing the first list of the members of the Adarsh Housing Society was cleared by the then chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde,'' the report said. Besides, he also approved the letter of intent between the state government and Adarsh to build the society, approved its first list of members as well as accepted and approved a suggestion by the then revenue minister Ashok Chavan that 40 per cent of the flats should be allotted to civilians.

The high court bench said, "We will see to it that the investigation is fair and impartial and that everybody is treated equally." They added that an impression had been created to suggest that the court had directed the CBI to probe certain persons (like Shinde and Deshmukh).