MUMBAI, Nov 25: An application filed in the Bomabay High Court has demanded that CBI should make former Maharashtra Chief Minister Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar an accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Activist Pravin Wategaonkar, who filed the application in the course of his Public Interest Litigation on Adarsh probe, alleges that Patil, during his tenure as Revenue Minister, granted certain approvals to Adarsh Society illegally.
In return, his son-in-law Arun Dawle was allotted a flat in the plush high-rise in south Mumbai, the application says.
Wategaonkar has relied on an application of CBI in the lower court, seeking the custody of former MLA and Adarsh promoter Kanhaiyalal Gidwani when he was arrested.
“CBI in its remand application said Gidwani had opened an account in Kallappanna Awade Ichalkaranji Janata Sahakari Bank in Sangli under a proxy name, in which huge amounts of cash were deposited by him from time to time. Most of the amount deposited was then transferred to the accounts of his wife, sons and daughters-in-law and also to the account of M/s Jai Maharashtra in which his sons are directors,” the appplication says.
“The said amounts were used for making payments towards the benami flats booked in Adarsh.
“Arun Dawle, son-in-law of Nilangekar-Patil, received at least Rs 17.60 lakh from the Jai Maharashtra account. Nilangekar misused his official position and showed undue favours to the society. In return, Dawle was alloted flat in the Society,” Wategaonkar alleges.
Wategaonkar wants CBI to make Patil-Nilangekar an accused in the case and also reveal the total amount deposited by Gidwani in the Sangli bank account.
A division bench of Justices P V Hardas and P N Deshmukh today posted the matter for hearing on December 5 and said CBI may file a reply if it wants to.
Patil-Nilangekar was Revenue Minister when Adarsh Society — accused of several violations of civic and environmetal laws — was allotted land in upmarket south Mumbai in 2004. (PTI)
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