Mumbai: Retired Defence Estates Officer,
R C Thakur, Brigadier (retired) M M Wanchoo, and former Deputy
Secretary in Maharashtra Urban Development Department, P V
Deshmukh, arrested yesterday in the Adarsh Society scam, were
on Wednesday remanded to CBI custody till March 31.
The three were produced before special CBI judge M V
Kulkarni today.
The arrests followed a censure by the Bombay High Court
which asked why CBI had not been taking action against those
who were allegedly involved in the case.
The accused have been arrested under the provisions of
IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Benami Transactions
Prohibition Act, said CBI special prosecutor Ejaz Khan.
Seeking custody, CBI said investigation was at a crucial
stage. The accused were a part of the larger conspiracy and
the agency had to ascertain the bribe amounts as well as the
corruption trail, it said.
According to the agency`s plea, Thakur conspired with
officers of Defence Services, promoter of Adarsh Housing
Society K L Gidwani, and officers of state government to get
the plot (on which Adarsh Society came up) which was in the
possession of the Army for long.
The accused "manipulated and fabricated records to
achieve the objective of getting land allotted in favour of
Adarsh", it said.
"In lieu of this abuse of their official position, they
obtained for themselves and close relatives, property rights
over flats in illegal manner at a very low cost compared to
market value for pecuniary advantage," the remand application
said.
PTI
