CBI raids across country in Adarsh Society scam

Mumbai, Jan 30 (ANI): A day after registering an FIR in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday is carrying out raids across the country in connection with the scam.

The raids are being conducted across Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, and Patna, at the premises of three main conspirators in the FIR - former Brigadier MM Wanchoo, president of the Society; RC Thakur, general secretary and main promoter; and former Congress legislator, KL Gidwani.

Two flats and one office of Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and three houses of RC Thakur in Thane, Nagpur and Bihar were raided.

The CBI had on Saturday filed an FIR in the case. The FIR named former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan along with 12 others.

The developments came after the Bombay High Court pulled up the CBI last week for its low investigation into the case.

The High Court had asked the CBI to complete its probe into the Adarsh housing society scam in two weeks. The CBI had also been asked to take a decision on filing FIRs in the case.

The Adarsh scam claimed its first victim last year in the form of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who was forced to resign after reports surfaced that his kin owned flats in the society.

After Chavan, top bureaucrats too faced the axe, most notably among them being Maharashtra's Chief Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari and Human Rights Commissioner Subhash K Lalla.

The 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society, originally meant for Kargil war heroes, landed in controversy after media reports said that several politicians, bureaucrats and defence personnel owned flats there. (ANI)