On Friday, the Bombay High Court cleared Congress Leader Ashok Chavan’s name from the Adarsh controversy. The Maharashtra Governor released an order that vindicated Chavan from the allegation. Ashok Chavan was forced to step down as Chief Minister in November 2010 due to accusations of his involvement.
An FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) states that Chavan, “became a member of the criminal conspiracy with accused RC Thakur, Brig Madan Mohan Wanchu and Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and in pursuance to the same, he proposed to include the civilians as members in the (Adarsh housing) society with ulterior motive to make his relatives as members in the society.”
The housing society promoters were Thakur, Wanchu and Gidwani. The Adarsh Housing was a project for a 31 storey structure in South Mumbai for the retired defense personnel. Chavan is also accused of allotting 40% of this Housing to civilians when Chavan was Revenue Minister. But instead, Chavan’s sister in law, mother in law and father in law had flats in the housing.
Chavan denied the allegations and placed the blame on former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who was Chavan’s predecessor. Chavan stated Deshmukh was the one who allotted the land for the project.
