Adarsh scam: HC pulls up CBI for delay in making arrests

Rapping the CBI for its failure to arrest "high-ranking politicians" in the Adarsh Housing Society scam despite having evidence, the Bombay High Court today directed the investigating agency to act "without fear or favour".

"Take action without fear or favour. We agree that some of the accused persons are high-ranking politicians but by initiating action CBI should send out a message that any wrongdoer, irrespective of who he is, will be punished," said Justice PB Majmudar of the division bench, also comprising Justice RD Dhanuka.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, Congress leader KL Gidwani, top-ranking retired army officers Lt General PK Rampal, Major Generals AR Kumar and TK Kaul, retired brigadiers RC Sharma and MM Wanchoo are among the accused.

The FIR also names Subash Lala, the then principal secretary to the chief minister, former principal secretary of the Urban Development Department Ramanand Tiwari, former municipal commissioner and IAS officer Jairaj Phatak and fellow IAS colleague and former Mumbai collector Pradeep Vyas as accused.

"Why have you (CBI) not arrested any of the accused yet? Are you feeling shy or are you just protecting the accused? If prima facie case is made out against anyone then action should be taken irrespective of who that person is. Delay in such cases can be dangerous," the bench said.

The court, after going through the progress report submitted by CBI, asked as to why no action had been taken in the form of arrest when the agency had found sufficient material against the accused.

The court rejected the contention of CBI counsels K Sudhakar and Ejaz Khan that arrests had been delayed as the investigation was in the last stages and a charge sheet would be filed in two months.

"Filing of charge sheet should not stop you (CBI) from arresting the accused. In several cases, CBI arrests the accused first and then files charge sheet. Why are you making an exception in this case," Justice Majmudar asked.

The court granted the plea of CBI lawyers seeking eight weeks time to file the charge sheet. The CBI counsels said complicity of two more persons emerged during the probe and their names would be included as accused in the charge sheet.

The court was hearing a batch of PILs filed by social activists Simpreet Singh and Pravin Wategaonkar seeking monitoring of the probe by the high court and invoking provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the case.
 

The court also directed public prosecutor Pandurang Pol to issue a letter to state's chief secretary for putting under suspension serving government officials involved in the scam.

"Are those officers against whom you (CBI) are probing still in service in government offices? They should be suspended pending investigation," the bench said.

"Take the names from CBI and issue letters to the concerned departments. There are provisions to suspend any government servant who is embroiled in a criminal case pending investigations," the court said, directing the state government to inform it on the next date of hearing what action had been taken against serving officers.

Among the serving officers accused in the case are Jairaj Phatak and Pradeep Vyas. The court also asked the senior officials of CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax (IT) to hold meetings for sharing information.

"In the interest of justice, investigations would progress more quickly if all the three agencies sit together and work. They share a common objective of bringing the culprits to justice," Justice Majmudar said.

Referring to the recent arrest of CBI counsel Mandar Goswami for allegedly accepting bribe from one of the prime accused in the scam Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, the court said, "We don't know whom to trust and (whom) not these days. But if we find that any CBI officer is showing favours to the accused then we will form a separate investigating team to probe the case."

Though Gidwani, a former MLC and one of the main promoters of the society, is under arrest, it for bribing the CBI lawyer for getting the charges against him diluted in the case and not for his alleged involvement in the scam.

The agency had registered a case in the scam on January 29 last year under various sections of IPC including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and showing forged document as genuine besides sections pertaining to Prevention of Corruption Act.

The late mother-in-law and sister-in-law of Ashok Chavan had flats in the society. Chavan was Revenue Minister between 2001-2003 and had dealt with files pertaining to the ownership of the land. He is alleged to have recommended 40 per cent allotment of flats to civilians in the Adarsh Housing Society, which was meant for war widows and heroes of Kargil war.

Two former army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and Gen NC Vij and ex-navy chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh owned flats in the scam-hit society building in upscale Colaba. However, they claimed to have surrendered the flats after the scam was unearthed.