CBI likely to file case in Adarsh Housing scam today

CBI likely to file case in Adarsh Housing scam today

The CBI is likely to file a case on Friday in Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam and a team of its officials from Mumbai will go the agency headquarters in Delhi to apprise the higher-ups of its findings so far.

A CBI spokesman in Delhi said a letter from Defence Ministry asking the agency to conduct the probe has been received. CBI is in process of collection of relevant records and documents and that "no case has been registered as yet", he added.

CBI officials in Mumbai said a team would be going to Delhi head office on Friday for discussion on Adarsh scam. "Only after discussion, further course of action will be decided," the officials said.

Official sources said a case was likely to be registered on Friday when CBI Director Ashwini Kumar, who is at present out of country attending an Interpol Conference, returns.

Defence Minister A K Antony had announced on Tuesday that a CBI probe into the housing society scam, in which some senior army officials, including former army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and N C Vij, too had flats allotted in their names.

CBI, which had made an in-house investigations into the case following complaints since October, will apprise the officials at the headquarters about the findings from the documents received from several departments, the sources said.

CBI had sought documents relating to the Society from various departments of the government, Indian Navy and Army and the Society, the sources added.

No cover up will happen in Adarsh scam: Antony

Defence Minister A K Antony said his ministry will "not cover up" the Adarsh Housing Society scam, but initiate "strict" action against those guilty though top armed forces officers, bureaucrats and politicians were allegedly involved in it.

"I can tell you only one thing...whenever we find anything wrong, we will not cover it up. We will take strict action," Antony told reporters on the sidelines of an IDSA event in New Delhi on Thursday.

He was replying to a question if names of more defence officers were stumbling out in the Adarsh Housing Society case.

Antony said the Ministry had requested a CBI probe in the case on the recommendations of Army Chief General V K Singh, to whom complaints from some members of Parliament in this regard had been forwarded.

"When we got a complaint from some members of Parliament about these allegations, we immediately referred them to the Army Chief," he said.

"He made an extensive study and after that sent recommendations to the government. He told the ministry since there were so many complex issues involved (in Adarsh scam), it is better to send the matter to CBI," he said.

After the Army Chief's recommendations, the Ministry too sought a detailed study on the matter and called for reports from the Army, Navy, Directorate General of Defence Estates.

"Ultimately, we came to the conclusion that it is better to accept the recommendations of the Army Chief and we referred it to CBI for inquiry. So lets wait for CBI inquiry. Before that, I do not want to come to any conclusion (on the scam)," he added.

The Defence Minister had recommended the CBI probe to the government into the scam a couple of days ago to investigate the circumstances under which a No Objection Certificate was issued to the Housing Society to construct the 31-storey building on a piece of land, which was in the "de facto" possession of the Army.

The probe agency will also investigate the commitments made for allotment of flats in the 104-apartment society for Kargil widows and martyrs' families.

Names of former Army Chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and Gen N C Vij, besides former Navy Chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh figure in the list of allottees in the housing society that was reportedly meant for families of Kargil martyrs.

Also, over 40 officers from the armed forces and Defence Estates too had got flats allotted in the society.