Adarsh probe: CBI issues summons to 3, recovers Rs 23 lakh

Mumbai, Feb 2 (PTI) CBI today issued summons to threemain accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam asking them toappear before it by Friday and said it recovered Rs 23 lakhfrom the residence of a former state official, who is also oneof the accused.

Summons were issued to Adarsh society''s generalsecretary R C Thakur, retired Brigadier M M Wanchoo andCongress leader K L Gidwani, CBI sources said.

The agency said that it has recovered Rs 23 lakh fromthe residence of former Deputy Secretary of Urban DevelopmentDepartment P V Deshmukh, one of the accused.

"Apart from certain documents, hard disk and laptop,we recovered Rs 23 lakh from Deshmukh''s residence here," a CBIofficial said.

Two months after initiating a preliminary inquiry, CBIhad on January 29 registered an FIR against 13 people,including former chief minister Ashok Chavan, retired armyofficials, bureaucrats and state government officials oncharges of criminal conspiracy, fraud and misuse of theirofficial powers.

Soon after registration of the FIR, the agencyconducted searches at the premises of Thakur, Wanchoo, Gidwaniand Ramanand Tiwari - in various parts of Maharashtra andBihar.

Meanwhile, a team of CBI officials met Chief SecretaryRatnakar Gaikwad today and submitted a letter requestinglogistical and infrastructural support for further probe intothe scam.

"We have sought accommodation, manpower and otherinfrastructural support. The chief secretary has assured torender all support," a senior CBI official said.

"Now that a case has been registered and voluminousdocuments have been seized from the houses of the main accusedand the office of Adarsh Society, we need accommodation tokeep those papers and question all the 103 members of theSociety," the official said.

The agency has also sought manpower like stenographersfor the clerical part of the investigations.