Missing Adarsh file: CBI arrests 3 after high court rap

It took almost three months and a reprimand from the Bombay high court on Thursday to get the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) cracking.

After being pulled up by the court for not inquiring into a ‘crucial’ missing file related to Adarsh Society, the CBI arrested three urban development department officials late on Thursday evening.

The arrested have been identified as Gurudatt Wajpe (desk officer), NN Narvekar (assistant town planner), and Waman Rawool who was the clerk to principal secretary when the Adarsh files were cleared.

“The three accused were the last ones to have dealt with the missing file. During the questioning, they did not give clear answers, so they were arrested,” an official said.

In its FIR related to the Adarsh Society scam, filed on January 29, 2011, the CBI named 13 people, including several high-profile politicians like former chief minister Ashok Chavan and bureaucrats.

Earlier during the day, while hearing a petition filed by one Mahendra Singh seeking the transfer of the missing file case to the CBI, a division bench of justices Ranjana Desai and RG Ketkar said there was no mention of the missing file in the CBI’s investigation progress report filed before the court.

On February 17, 2011, another division bench had directed the missing file case to be transferred from the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch to the CBI saying the file had a direct connection with the scam.

Even at the last hearing, on March 16, 2011, judges Desai and Ketkar had enquired about the missing file terming it “more serious”.

The file with several notings by bureaucrats and ministers in connection with the various clearances given to Adarsh went missing from the Urban Development Department at Mantralaya on October 28, 2010.

But no complaint was filed till November 26, 2010. The Crime Branch, which began investigations on November 27, found that the file had mysteriously resurfaced on November 1. But four crucial pages that had notes about doing away with a road reservation given to Adarsh Society were missing, the Crime Branch said in its report.

In an earlier affidavit, Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police (crime), had said the file originated in the Urban Development Department in 1999 and it was closed in 2003.

Roy said that the Crime Branch had interrogated 66 people from Mantralaya, including serving and retired staff and officers, those manning the gates and those responsible for the building’s maintenance, and recorded their statements.

The mobile phone records of 37 people had been analysed, Roy said. The Crime Branch had even proposed to carry out narco analysis tests and brain mappings of the five suspects, including the two people who had the cupboard keys.

But none of these has found a mention in the CBI’s status report submitted to the court. On Thursday, the judges told the CBI that the court should have been informed about it. “What is the response? Have you located it?” asked Desai. “We are unhappy. This is the worst part of this case.”

“The investigating officer has not made any investigations although it is very crucial,” the judges said in the order. The progress report has nothing about the missing file. “This is very distressing. The investigating agency must focus its attention on the missing file.”

Special public prosecutor DN Salvi said though it was not mentioned in the report, the CBI had started investigating the matter.

But the judges said the court was “surprised if it is indeed being looked into... as it is not reflected in the report submitted to us today”.

The court directed the CBI to mention in its next progress report the investigation that it has done regarding the missing file. The agency will file its report to the court on June 22, 2011.