Mumbai:
After three former Chief Ministers, a number of retired senior army men, including former chiefs General N C Vij and General Deepak Kapoor have been summoned by the judicial commission probing the Adarsh housing society scam.
Former general officer commanding of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa region, Lieutenant General (Retd) Tejinder Singh told the two-member inquiry panel today that the high-rise was not a threat to military installations in Colaba, in south Mumbai.
In his deposition earlier this month General Deepak Kapoor has contradicted the Defence Ministry's stand and maintained that the Adarsh building is not a security threat for the nearby defence installation as compared to other high-rise buildings in the area. General Kapoor had given up the Adarsh membership after the news of the scam broke out.
The Defence Ministry has always maintained that Adarsh Society was illegally built on their land.
There are multiple agencies probing the Adarsh scandal, including the judicial commission which was set up by the Maharashtra government after the outcry over the scam. The commission is probing the ownership of the land and whether it was reserved for Kargil War heroes.
The interim report submitted by the commission stated that the land belongs to the state. Three former chief ministers of Maharashtra who have deposed before the panel - Ashok Chavan, Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh - too have maintained that the land belonged to the state.
Mr Chavan is among 13 people who have been charge-sheeted by CBI in the multi-crore scam. He has been charged with cheating and criminal conspiracy for recommending the allotment of 40 per cent of flats to civilians in what was supposed to be a society for defence personnel.