The Adarsh housing society in the upscale Colaba area of Mumbai was meant for war heroes and their widows, but politicians, bureaucrats, and senior Army officials tweaked rules to occupy flats in the building.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Parliament, which is looking into the Adarsh housing scam, has lashed out against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not initiating any action against the senior officers involved in the case. The panel directed the ministry to fix responsibility and award "exemplary punishment" within four months.
"The committee is shocked to note that the ministry's Action Taken Note is silent about the action initiated against a group of officials, holding key posts in the ministry, who violated rules and regulations and committed unpardonable irregularities under the ruse of welfare of servicemen, war widows, and children," the PAC report, tabled in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, read.
"The committee is dismayed to note that the ministry miserably failed to accomplish even the physical survey, clear demarcation, and proper verification of the entire land, leaving enough scope for irregularities in an arbitrary," the report stated.
The Adarsh housing society in the upscale Colaba area of Mumbai was meant for war heroes and their widows, but politicians, bureaucrats, and senior Army officials tweaked rules to occupy flats in the building.
A recent inquiry report by the MoD had indicted former Army chiefs, General Deepak Kapoor and General NK Vij, along with eight other senior Army officers, for their role in the scam. In fact, it was third such report that made scathing observations against the two Army chiefs. Earlier, the Army's Court of Inquiry (CoI) and a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had also indicted these officers.
Apart from the Army chiefs, the other officers named by the CoI included Lieutenant Generals GS Sihota, PK Rampal, Shantanu Choudhry, Tejinder Singh, and Major Generals Ram Kanwar Hooda, AR Kumar, VS Yadav, and Tej Kishen Kaul.
In 2011, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered a case regarding the scam and booked 13 people, including former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. At the same time, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a separate money laundering case against some of the accused. Chavan had had to resign from the CM's post after the scam surfaced.
Then in 2012, the CBI filed a chargesheet in the case, naming Chavan and 12 others as accused.
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