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CBI finds Adarsh link in defence scam
A defence official accused in Pune’s Lohegaon land scam and Lothian road land scam, is also allegedly linked to Mumbai’s Adarsh housing society scam.
A defence official accused in Pune’s Lohegaon land scam and Lothian road land scam, is also allegedly linked to Mumbai’s Adarsh housing society scam.
Former defence estate officer Sewak Nayyar was the one who bought a flat in Adarsh society using vegetable vendor Vishal Kedari, 33, as his front, say officers of the Central Bureau of Investiagtion (CBI), which is probing all three cases.
Kedari, who officially bought the Rs71-lakh flat, lives in a 100 sq ft shanty in Khadki, in the cantonment area of Pune. After failing his Class X exams, he gave up studies and has no source of income except his vegetable stall.
His name came up during the Adarsh investigation in August 2011, but the authorities had failed to discover who financed him.
The link came out this week after a search of Nayyar’s flat yielded papers related to the Adarsh flat.
Nayyar, who had been arrested over the Lohegaon land scam in April 2011, was booked in the Lothian road land scam on
Tuesday along with former vice chief of Army staff Lt Gen Thamburaj and Kalpataru builders.
"We had carried searches at Nayyar’s house and found the Adarsh flat documents in his possession. This shows the flat actually belongs to Nayyar although the official name of the owner is different," Vidya Kulkarni, Superintendent, CBI, told Hindustan Times.
In 2011, the CBI officials had raided Kedari’s house, but they drew a blank since the documents pertaining to Adarsh housing society flat were with Nayyar.
Kedari, a resident of Khadki, came into contact with Nayaar during the latter’s stint as the chief executive officer of Khadki Cantonment Board.
Earlier, he had told officials that he had borrowed the money from several people, but had not named Nayyar. Now he claims the Nayyar family treated him like its own.
Nayyar said: “The flat is owned by Kedari. This is an old issue and I do not want to comment further.”
Rajpal Singh, deputy superintendent of police, CBI, investigating the Lothian road land scam, said, “If we get any evidence against Nayyar in the Adarsh case, we will not spare him.”
