Mumbai:
A special court on Tuesday granted bail to seven of the accused in the Adarsh housing scam. All the accused had earlier sought bail on the ground that the investigating agency had not filed a chargesheet even after two months of their arrest. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claims it has 30 more days to act.
Those who have been granted bail are suspended Maharashtra Finance Secretary Pradeep Vyas, PV Deshmukh, Retired Brigadier MM Wanchoo, former Defence Estates Officer RC Thakur, Retired Major General A R Kumar, Retired Major General TK Kaul and former Congress MLC KL Gidwani.
The seven accused have to pay a surety of Rs five lakh each and submit their passports. They will also have to be present before the CBI twice a week.
The Adarsh housing scam was exposed in 2010 when it emerged that an illegal 104-apartment society had come up on a prime plot in South Mumbai, where key defence personnel, bureaucrats, and politicians owned flats. It later emerged that some of them had colluded to grab a defence plot and got an illegal environmental clearance. It also got other concessions by claiming Kargil war heroes and widows were part of the society.