Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, while deposing before the Adarsh inquiry commission on Thursday, claimed that he was not aware that his in-laws were members of the controversial Adarsh society.
When the commission’s lawyer, Mr Deepan Merchant raised questions on how Mr Chavan’s in-laws got membership in the society specifically during his tenure as chief minister, Mr Chavan said, “It was towards the end of October 2010 that I learnt that some of my relatives had applied for membership to the Adarsh society and it was granted to
them. However, they subsequently tendered their resignation from their membership in the same month.”
This was the second time that the former chief minister, who is one of the 14 accused in the scam, was summoned by the commission for clarifications on some queries.
Mr Chavan also denied knowing that one of his relatives’ names was rejected by the scrutiny panel earlier, but was later accepted after he became the chief minister.
Ms Seema Sharma, who had applied for membership to the society, was initially rejected in 2004. However, her name was approved in 2008 when Mr Chavan became the chief minister.
Mr Chavan maintained that he wasn’t aware of whether Seema fulfilled the criteria for the membership to the society.
The former chief minister also tried to shift the blame onto his predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh for approving the memberships to the society. Mr Chavan claimed that it was the recently deceased former CM who had approved the names. “The approval of names of members of a cooperative housing society to whom government land is allotted is finally approved by the office of the chief minister.”
Mr Chavan had to step down as chief minister soon after the alleged scam surfaced in November 2010.