CBI chargesheet in Adarsh scam likely tomorrow

MUMBAI: The CBI is likely to file its first chargesheet in the Adarsh Housing scam tomorrow against some of the members of the upscale society, 18 months after a case was registered in this connection.

The scam had fuelled a political storm in Maharashtra that led to the resignation of Ashok Chavan as Chief Minister. Chavan is among the 14 accused in the case in which Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde are also under the scanner.

According to official sources, a chargesheet would be filed tomorrow, a day before the case comes up before Bombay High Court which is hearing a bunch of public interest litigations seeking the court's supervision of the probe.

The CBI on June 18 had assured the High Court that it would file a chargesheet in the case before July 4 as the agency had to take prior sanction from the government to prosecute bureaucrats.

It was expected that the first chargesheet may not name any bureaucrat or public servant as the High Court had suggested to the CBI that it could first file chargesheet against those accused for whom sanction was not required.

"At least file the chargesheet. You (CBI) can procure sanction later for the bureaucrats," a division bench of Justices S A Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar had said on the last date of hearing.

The CBI has registered a case on January 29 last year against Chavan and 13 others which included bureaucrats and retired army personnel.