The controversial Adarsh Society may have brought several VVIPs under the scanner but who owns the Housing complex’s prime land amid claims and counter claims is baffling CBI which is now looking into an old Survey of India plan.
CBI, which has conducting a preliminary enquiry into the Adarsh housing society scam, has sought for land records from the Maharashtra government to verify the claim of the Defence Ministry through a 1957 Survey of India plan, which shows that the land was in ownership of a local Military authority.
“The Defence ministry has submitted a map claiming that it specifies the plot on which Adarsh was constructed belonged to them. To verify this claim, we have sought land records from the State government,” a senior CBI official said on Tuesday.
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“The state government has, meanwhile, been claiming that the land belongs to them and that the Army had encroached upon it,” the official said.
According to the Survey of India Plan of 1957, submitted by the Defence to the probe agency, the map of Colaba’s Navy Nagar, where the society is located, shows that a small portion of the plot was in the ownership of the local military authority prior to 1957.
The State government claims that the Defence Ministry did not get the plot registered in its own name, the CBI official claimed.
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Defence Minister A.K. Antony had announced a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in connection with the housing society, in which some senior army officials as well as former army chiefs Deepak Kapoor and N.C. Vij too had flats allotted in their name. Gen. Kapoor and Gen. Vij have since said they are surrendering the flats.
The housing society, built on prime defence land, was constructed in alleged violation of various rules and regulations.
The building was originally meant to be a six-storey structure but was later extended to 31 floors.