Ajit Pawar's wife may come under CBI scanner

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife may come under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society matter. A Right to Information (RTI) activist, Ketan Tirodkar, on Wednesday submitted documents to the Bombay High Court during the hearing of the matter, pointing out that the addresses of two of the flat-owners in Adarsh were the same as address of Sunetra Ajit Pawar, as submitted by her to the city civil court in Pune.

The court has now directed the CBI to look into it. The agency has been interrogating the benami transactions which may have taken place during the purchase of flats in Adarsh.

Application

According to the documents submitted to the court (a copy of which is with The Hindu), Ms. Pawar (48) submitted an application to the city civil court in Pune on June 30, 2009. In the verification, she has given her address as Plot no. 21, Jijai, Yashwant Ghatgenagar Cooperative Housing Society Limited, University Road, Pune.

Two flat-owners in Adarsh housing society — a father-in-law and daughter-in-law — also have given the same address in their affidavits filed during the purchase of the property.

The duo — Nivrutti Ganpati Bhosale, a retired executive engineer who worked with the Maharashtra government's Public Works Department and Jayashri Abhay Bhosale — are respectively the father and sister-in-law of Avinash Bhosale, a builder and businessman in Pune, who is also known to have close association with the Pawar family.

Affidavit

Ms. Jayashri Abhay Bhosale filed an affidavit on August 27, 2002 and stated in an application that her monthly income from all sources is Rs. 11,000.

In his affidavit filed on August 10, 2004, Mr. Nivrutti Bhosale has given his address as 21, Jijai, Yashwant Ghatgenagar, Range Hills corner, Shivaji Nagar, Pune. In his application to the Adarsh society in 2004 itself, he has claimed that his monthly income from all sources is Rs. 11,500.

Mr Tirodkar submitted the documents to the court and gave a copy to the CBI counsel, who said he will give it to the investigating officer in the case.

In related developments during the hearing on Adarsh matter, another petitioner requested the Bombay High Court to monitor the investigation on a daily basis, similar to the monitoring of the 2G scam investigation by the Supreme Court.

The petitioner, Simpreet Singh, also requested the court to look into the alleged involvement of other politicians namely Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh, both Union Ministers. “The CBI has not yet included their names in the FIR,” Mr. Singh's counsel Ashish Mehta said.

The court directed the CBI to file a progress report on the investigation by May 4.

The State government-formed Adarsh Inquiry Commission is set to start recording evidence of witnesses concerned from Thursday. The first person whose evidence will be recorded will be Deepak Saxena from the Headquarter Maharashtra and Gujarat area.

“The CBI is also slated to submit Adarsh-related documents to the commission. So far, the agency has been able to produce only 15 of more than 200 files,” Dipan Merchant, senior counsel to the commission, said.

The Chief Secretary of the government of Maharashtra will file his affidavit before the commission on Thursday.