No wrongdoing in Adarsh allotment: Sushilkumar Shinde

MUMBAI: Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde claimed here on Monday that the charges levelled against him in the Adarsh housing society scam were baseless. "There was no wrongdoing in Adarsh case; the land belongs to the state government and there was no reservation for Kargil martyrs," Shinde told reporters in Mumbai.

This is the first time he has publicly spoken about the Adarsh issue.

The inquiry commission headed by former Justice JA Patil has passed strictures against Sushilkumar Shinde for giving certain clearances to Adarsh society. The commission observed that Shinde had given political patronage to the housing society.

The Maharashtra government had, on December 20, rejected the report of the judicial commission of inquiry on the Adarsh scam, tabled in the legislative assembly. The Opposition parties had alleged that the report was rejected to save former chief minister Ashok Chavan and Shinde. After Congress president Rahul Gandhi's intervention, the government of Maharashtra decided to partially implement the panel’s recommendations.

The commission was not too harsh and did not recommend filing any case against Shinde because there was no evidence of him taking any direct favours from the Adarsh society.

The two-member commission headed by retired high court judge JA Patil indicted several politicians including four former chief ministers, including Ashok Chavan, late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Shivajirao Nilangekar, and several civil servants.