Chavan passes the buck, accuses Deshmukh for Adarsh scam

Mumbai - Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday blamed his predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh for the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

He told the two-member judicial committee that the allotment of land in Mumbai city is governed by the Government Resolution of 1999 and directions from the chief minister's office.

Chavan was the revenue minister in the Vilasrao government. Vilasrao, during his interrogation on Wednesday, had blamed Chavan for the controversial allotments.

Chavan, who had to step down as chief minister soon after the alleged scam surfaced in November 2010, is one of the 14 accused in the case filed by the CBI, which is probing several irregularities and violation of rules in construction of the 31-storeyed building in upscale Colaba.

CBI has alleged in its FIR, which also names several retired army officers and bureaucrats, that Chavan as revenue minister okayed inclusion of civilians in the society meant for defence personnel and, as quid pro quo, his relatives got flats in the south Mumbai high-rise.

In his deposition before the commission on June 27, Deshmukh had sought to absolve himself of culpability in the scam and passed the buck to Chavan, saying the "whole" matter was referred to the Revenue Department for clearance after which the land was allotted.

Deshmukh, currently Union minister of science and technology, also said the decision to include civilians as members of the society, which was said to be exclusively meant for members of the defence services and war widows, was taken by Chavan.

Before Deshmukh, another former chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde, had appeared before the judicial panel on Monday.

Shinde, Union power minister, who is also under the scanner in the scam, had in his deposition sought to wash his hands off the blame saying the decision on allotting government land and granting additional FSI to the society was taken during Deshmukh's tenure as chief minister.