Chavan's wife wrongly shown as owner of suburban flat:relative

Madanlal Sharma, who deposed today, is brother of Chavan's father-in-law. He had sought membership to the Society on August 13, 2009 and the same was sanctioned on August 30, 2009.

According to the bye-laws of Adarsh society, the membership was to be granted only to those persons who do not own flats in Mumbai.

"I am the owner of a flat in suburban Andheri since 1985. My application form seeking membership in Adarsh says I do not own any flats in the city. This is incorrect. I don't know who filled my form. I only signed it," Sharma told the two-member inquiry commission.

"A rent receipt dated June 30, 2009 issued to the Adarsh society showed that my niece Amita Chavan is the owner of the flat in Andheri and she has rented it to me. This receipt is incorrect. Amita is the wife of Ashok Chavan," Sharma said.

Sharma further told the commission that Ashok Chavan was chief minister when he had filed the application form and when his membership was approved.

He further said that he had taken a loan of over Rs 65 lakh from one Malav Shah from Pune. "Except Rs 50,000, the entire amount was paid through a loan taken from Malav Shah. I don't know who this Malav Shah is. His grandfather Hiralal Shah is a family friend though I don't know him personally," the 84-year-old said.

When Sharma said he had not given any security for repayment of the loan, commission chairman J A Patil quipped, "This was a private transaction."

According to CBI, Malav Shah is the son of Pune-based builder Jayant Shah, a close associate of Chavan. Malav had also financed the flat purchased by Chavan's sister-in-law Seema Sharma.