Army submits Adarsh report to defence ministry

After probing the role of its officials including a serving major general in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam in Mumbai, the army has submitted its court of inquiry report in the case to the Defence Ministry.

The CoI was ordered by army's Pune-based Southern Command to investigate the role of Maj Gen Ram Kumar Hooda and various other officers for issuing no-objection certificate to the private housing society to construct a 31-storeyed complex on a plot in Colaba.

Hooda was the Mumbai-based area commander for Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. "The CoI was completed and submitted with the defence ministry last week," defence ministry sources told PTI in New Delhi.

In the report, the army has stated that the land on which the controversial building was constructed belonged to it and the NOC was issued to private builders in violation of rules, they said.

The 104-apartment society got embroiled in a controversy after the navy had raised concerns over security as the building over-looked important military installations.

On December 9 last year, Defence Minister A K Antony had ordered a CBI probe to fix responsibility of the armed forces and defence estates officers in the housing scam.

He had asked the CBI to look into 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 was also asked to investigate into the commitments made for allotment of flats in the society for Kargil widows and martyrs' families.

Former army chiefs Gen Deepak Kapoor and N C Vij, apart from former navy chief Admiral Madhavendra Singh had flats allotted in their names in the housing society.

Soon after the scam came to light, the defence ministry had asked the army, navy and the defence estates to submit a report on the issue.

The preliminary findings of the ministry's probe brought out "criminal conspiracy" at the local level in army and defence estates to give up the land, which was in army's possession till 1999-2000, in favour of the housing society.