CBI Adarsh FIR: The Ashok Chavan file

Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan allegedly showed undue favours to scam-hit Adarsh Housing Society and asked its managing committee members to make recommendations for allowing 40 per cent allocation for civilians, according to the FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The FIR details, which came out on Tuesday, alleged Chavan, during his tenure as revenue minister, became a part of an alleged criminal conspiracy along with other accused R C Thakur, Brig (retd) M M Wanchoo and Congress leader K L Gidwani as he proposed to the trio to pass a letter recommending 40 per cent flats for society.

The CBI alleged that Chavan abused his official position with an ulterior motive of getting flats for his relatives.

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After he became chief minister, the CBI alleged that in 2009, Chavan gave 15 per cent concession for recreation ground, which was earlier not allowed by the previous government.

When contacted, Chavan refused to comment and said he was still awaiting a formal copy of the FIR.

The CBI has approached the Centre to provide sanction to prosecute a senior Maharashtra IAS officer in connection with the Adarsh housing scam for allegedly giving approval to increase in the height of the building without following the laid down norms.

The FIR has mentioned name of Jairaj Moreshwar Phatak, a 1978 batch IAS officer, after the list of 13 accused and said that he was not named as an accused in the case as he was a Joint Secretary rank officer for which the agency needs to take permission from the Centre.

The allegation against Phatak was that during his tenure as commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, he had approved the height to be increased from 97 metres to 107 metres on September one, 2007.

He was the head of the committee looking after high-rise buildings in the megapolis and the agency alleged that he had not referred the height increase to other committee members.

The CBI has mentioned that his son Kanishka Phatak was given a flat in the society. The FIR names six senior retired Army officials -- Lt Gen P K Rampal, Major Generals T K Kaul, A R Kumar, Brig Wanchoo and R C Sharma and Col T K Sinha -- accusing them of failing to protect the interests of the Army.

It alleged that Thakur, Wanchoo and Gidwani were the main conspirators who illegally took land not belonging to them and Maj Gen Kumar and Brig Sharma misused their official power and fraudulently and dishonestly issued No Objection Certificate to the city collector saying the land belongs to state government and not to the Army.

Gen Rampal did not object to the NOC issued by Sharma and Kumar, the FIR alleged. Gen Kaul gave wrong information to the Lok Sabha that the land does not belong to defence and in return got a flat in the Society.