Adarsh Society stood on defence land: Ex-Estate Officer

MUMBAI: The land on which the controversial Adarsh Housing Society here stood belonged to Defence Department, which was in its possession since 1940s, Saurav Ray, First Secretary in Indian Embassy in Cambodia, today said.

"There were old army buildings of 1940s adjacent to the land in question and such structures can come only on the defence land," Ray, who was Defence Estate Officer here from 2002 to 2004 and in-charge of defence lands in Mumbai, told Aniket Nikam, counsel for Defence Ministry.

Ray was being cross-examined before the Adarsh Commission, looking into alleged irregularities in grant of various permissions to the society in upscale south Mumbai.

Ray came all the way from Cambodia to tender evidence before the Maharashtra government-appointed two-member judicial panel. His deposition is considered significant as he was the first person in defence department who had taken objection to the formation of the housing society.

He told Nikam that during his tenure as the Defence Estate Officer, he made verbal enquiries with the office of Mumbai Collector and was told the Adarsh land had no government survey number or property card.

He said there was a park on the land called Kukri Park which was under the management of military. The military would not construct a park nor manage it unless the land belongs to them, Ray maintained.

To a question, he said in December 2003 he had found out that the park was not being maintained properly due to probable vested interests and this was mentioned in Parliament in response to a starred question of December 12, 2003.

Ray said "unprecedented haste" was shown in handling the Adarsh matter at military side as some top army officers, including Major Gen A R Kumar, Brigadier T K Kaul and Brigadier Rampal, were members of the society.