Congress shielding Adarsh scam reflects their true face, says: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad commenting on the Adarsh Scam said on Friday that the reluctance on the part of Congress to conduct further investigations reflected the true face of Congress.

"Their government refusing to give permission to conduct prosecution of Ashok Chavan, who was removed from the post of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, says a lot. It reflects the true face of the Congress," said Ravi Shankar Prasad.

"Rahul Gandhi should be questioned on this issue. He has been talking a lot about honesty these days," he said.

"He claims that he has done everything to pass the Lokpal bill but his government is trying to shield the Adarsh scam, one of the biggest scams in this country, resulting from the misuse of defence land," he added.

He said Rahul Gandhi was taking the credit for the Lokpal Bill and RTI act.

"We were the ones who passed the Lokpal Bill and the RTI act and Gandhi is taking credit for that," he said.

"Now their party is trying to hide the Adarsh scam. This is the true face of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, who talk about transparency and say that they have got the Lokpal Bill passed," he added.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan was among 13 people charged by CBI earlier on July 4 in the multi-crore Adarsh Housing scam.

The 10,000-page CBI chargesheet was filed before the registrar of a session's court; nearly 18 months after the agency registered a case.

The Adarsh scam had fuelled a political storm in Maharashtra leading to the resignation of Chavan as the chief minister.

The CBI has registered a case on January 29 last year against Chavan and others, which included bureaucrats and retired army personnel.

Among the accused are senior politicians, bureaucrats and army officers.

The CBI had in March this year arrested nine out of the 14 accused. The nine arrested accused are - R C Thakur, secretary of Adarsh, retired brigadier M M Wanchoo, former Congress MLC Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, both promoters of the society, former deputy secretary of urban development department P V Deshmukh, IAS officers Ramanand Tiwari and Jairaj Phatak, retired major generals A R Kumar and T K Kaul and former city collector Pradeep Vyas.

They were released on bail by a special CBI court after CBI failed to file chargesheet within the stipulated 60-day period after arrest. They have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and the Prevention of Corruption.

The Adarsh Society was originally meant to be a six-storey housing facility for Kargil war heroes and war widows. It was, however, converted into a 100-metre-tall building and apartments in it were allocated to serving bureaucrats, senior army commanders and relatives of senior politicians.