Adarsh Commission gets six-month extension

The judicial commission inquiring into scam-tainted Adarsh Society has been granted another extension of six months to complete its probe and submit a report on the same to Maharashtra government.

The two-member panel, comprising former Bombay High Court judge J A Patil and former Maharashtra chief secretary P Subraminian, was formed by Maharashtra government to probe alleged violations of the civic and environmental laws in constructing the 31-storey highrise in South Mumbai.

The commission, which is looking into the ownership of the plot among other charges, was originally supposed to submit its report in this regard in January 2012 and had sought an extension till August 2012 to complete its work.

The panel was assigned the mandate to ascertain whether the plot of land granted to the plush society was reserved for martyrs of Kargil war, besides other acts of alleged commission and omission, including expansion of nearby Prakash Pethe Road, change in reservation of BEST plot, apparently to facilitate the highrise.

The probe panel has so far examined 15 persons, including Brigadier Deepak Saxena, former officer in the defence estates department R C Thakur and former municipal commissioner Jairaj Phatak. The evidence of former principal secretary to the then chief minister Ashok Chavan, Subash Lalla, who is also one of the accused in the case, is currently being recorded by the commission. The panel is yet to examine Union ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh concerning their alleged role.