Handing a clean chit to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the Adarsh society scam case, the CBI on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it had no evidence to suggest that he abused his office as a public servant to secure membership to a known person in the controversial society and that it did not feel it “legally necessary” to name him as an accused in the case.
Responding to an affidavit filed by social activist-petitioner Pravin Wategaonkar seeking a direction to the investigating agency to make Shinde an accused in the Adarsh scam case, the CBI stated in an affidavit that in the light of the facts and circumstances that had come to light in its probe, the CBI stated that the CBI did not see any merit in the allegations or prayer made by the petitioner that wanted indulgence of the court.
“….the CBI does not feel it legally necessary to name Sushilkumar Shinde as an accused person in the ongoing investigation.. The CBI does not see any merit in the allegations or prayer made by the applicant, which warrant indulgence of the Hon’able court,” CBI’s investigating officer I K Babu stated in his affidavit, as he urged the court to dismiss the petitioner’s application.
The CBI told the court that it had completed its investigations into the scam and filed a chargesheet in a special court on July 4, 2012. “The investigation with respect of benami transaction is still in progress.”
Dismissing Wategaonkar’s charge that Shinde had abused his office as the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra to help “someone” from late Major NW Khankhoje’s family to secure of membership of the Adarsh society, the CBI stated: “There is no evidence coming to light during the investigation that Shinde abused his position as a public servant for the benefit of someone from Khankonje’s family in connivance with the office bearers of Adarsh society”.
“There is no criminal conspiracy for the said issue as the membership was proposed within the same family,” the affidavit averred.
However, the CBI stated that its investigations did not reveal that there were any family relations between late Khankoke and Shinde and that there was nothing record to substantiate Gidwani’s deposition that NW Khankoke’s name was included at the behest of Shinde.
Alluding Wategaonkar’s charge that Shinde’s act of insisting on rechecking the eligibility of 51 of the 71 approved members and substituting new members in place of the ineligible members had resulted in illegal benami transaction in respect of flats, the CBI stated: “There is nothing on record to suggest that Shinde had insisted on 51 more members by rechecking/substituting ineligible members before possession of land to be given to Adarsh society which resulted in addition of illegal benami members”.
On the issue of payment made toward the purchase of the flat allotted to Khankoje the CBI stated that “prima facie the entire payment of Rs 95 lakh appears to have been made from the salary/pension account of his son Capt Kiran Khankhoje, an ex-Indian Navy man, and one payment came from the salary account of his daughter-in-law Devyani Khankoje, working as a vice president of Reliance group of companies.
In its FIR, the CBI named 13 accused, including former chief minister Ashok Chavan, and arrested nine accused persons. Incidentally, all the nine arrested accused were released on bail after the CBI failed to file a charge-sheet against them within the stipulated 60 days of their arrest.
All the 13 accused in the Adarsh scam case have been charged with criminal conspiracy under IPC and various sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act and Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act.Apart from the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department are also looking into the various aspects of the scam.
The CBI is investigating, among other things, the alleged irregularities in the issuance of NOC, subsequent land allotment and various clearances to the Adarsh society for the construction of the Adarsh building. It is also trying to establish the role of the then senior officials from the Defence Estate and the Colaba-based Army headquarters (Maharashtra and Gujarat) who gave the NOC to the Adarsh society’s building, which overlooks defence installations, compromising the national security and disregarding the environment concerns.