Adarsh scam: Kanhaiyalal Gidwani flip-flop continues

A day after his evasive answers over the possession of the land on which Adarsh CHS stands, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, one of the chief promoters of the controversial tower, continued his flip-flops on Tuesday. 

On the last day of his 19-day long deposition in front of the two-member commission set up to probe the Adarsh scam, Gidwani again changed his stand, with respect to former chief minister and one of the accused, Ashok Chavan, and gave him clean chit.  

During the first few days, Gidwani had given a clean chit to Chavan but later backtracked and said that the decision to include civilians in the society was taken after a meeting with the then-revenue minister Ashok Chavan, in June 2000. On Tuesday, he took a U-turn denying any such discussion. 

Referring to the paragraph of letter dated June 2, 2000, which states: “That we are agreeable to accommodate civilian members in our society to the extent of 40%,” Gidwani mentioned that the statement is incorrect. 

In other proceedings, the society counsel submitted an application to the commission objecting the cross examination of witnesses by commission counsel Dipan Merchant. Manish Desai, counsel for the society, submitted an application saying the commission’s counsel does not have any right or authority to cross examine persons, who have filed affidavits pursuant to the summons from the commission.