Adarsh scam: CBI to file chargesheet against Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, son Kailash Gidwani in graft case

MUMBAI: In more trouble for former Congress MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, CBI will soon file a charge sheet against him and his son Kailash Gidwani in a case of bribing public servants to dilute charges levelled against them in the multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Gidwani is one of the 13 accused along with former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to be chargesheeted by CBI on July 4 for their alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam.

In March this year, Gidwani and his son Kailash were arrested by CBI along with the agency's counsel Mandar Goswami and tax consultant J K Jagiasi in an alleged graft case.

According to CBI, the Gidwanis had paid a bribe of Rs 1.25 crore to Jagiasi, who had flaunted of close links with CBI officers including Goswami, to weaken the charges levelled against them in the Adarsh scam.

Jagiasi, who used to file Goswami's income tax returns, in turn gave Rs 25 lakh to the CBI counsel.

The agency is now at the fag end of investigation into the bribe case and is likely to file charge sheet in the case by the end of this month.

CBI had stumbled upon the bribe case with the arrest of Jagiasi first on February 20 for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh from an Air India official, accused in a CBI case, for dilution of the charges against him. During interrogation, it was learnt that Jagiasi had also approached Gidwani seeking a bribe of Rs 1.25 crore.

All the four have been booked under section 120 (b) of IPC for criminal conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.