Maharashtra’s Ex-CM gets clean chit in the Adarsh Scam
In a recent affidavit filed before the Bombay High Court, the CBI’s Investigation Officer SS Giri stated that the agency had already looked into Patil-Nilangekar’s role in the scam and had not got any material against the latter that warranted action against him.
The CBI officer explicitly stated in the affidavit “The role of Patil-Nilangekar and others in relation to the Adarsh society has already been looked into by the CBI. The material unearthed during the investigation did not warrant any action against them (Patil-Nilangekar and others), excepting those named in the charge sheet (filed in the trial court on July 4, 2012).”
The CBI earlier had also given a clean chit to Shinde, the current Union Home Minister, by informing the Bombay High Court that it had no evidence that suggested that he abused his office as the then chief minister to secure membership to a known person in the Adarsh society and that it did not feel it “legally necessary” to name him as an accused in the case.
The affidavit that the CBI filed before the HC division bench of Justices PV Hardas and AS Gadkari was in reply to an application filed by social activist Pravin Wategaonkar, seeking a direction to the CBI for making Patil-Nilangekar an accused in the Adarsh housing scam.
Wategaonkar had alleged in his application filed in November last year as part of an ongoing public interest litigation in the Adarsh scam case, that Patil-Nialengekar had, as the then State Revenue Minister, granted certain approvals to Adarsh Society illegally. He also levelled the charges that in return of the favour done by Nilangekar-Patil to Adarsh society, his (the then Minister’s) son-in-law Arun Dhawle was all0tted a flat in the plush high-rise building at Colaba in south Mumbai.
Giving response for the Wategaonkar’s allegations against Patil-Nilangekar, the CBI stated in its affidavit, “There is no material on hand to suggest that Patil-Nilangekar had extended undue favours to Adarsh society and also to suggest that his son-in-law Arun Dhawle was given membership in the society and eventually allotted a flat as a quid pro quo.”
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