2 former army officers held in connection with Adarsh scam

Ahead of hearing of the case in the Bombay high court tomorrow, CBI today arrested two former Major Generals of the army in connection with the multi-crore rupee Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Ahead of hearing of the case in the Bombay high court tomorrow, CBI today arrested two former Major Generals of the army in connection with the multi-crore rupee Adarsh Housing Society scam.

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Major General (retd) A R Kumar was arrested in the wee hours from his Hyderabad residence and produced before a court there for transit remand for being taken to Mumbai, official sources said.

A CBI team visited the home of another retired Maj Gen T K Kaul who was not present at his home in Mumbai but later turned up at the CBI office on his own where the fomalities were completed for his arrest.

Both Kumar and Kaul would be produced before a designated court here tomorrow along with former Congress MLC Kanhiya Lal Gidwani who was arrested yesterday after he had secured a bail in another case.

CBI today secured a remand for three others--R C Thakur, a retired defence estates officer, and Brig (retd) M M Wanchoo and P V Deshmukh, former deputy secretary in the state urban development department. They were remanded to CBI custody till March 31.

In its remand note, CBI said the agency needs to unearth how the accused persons managed to get clearances from state government and other agencies and whether any payments were made.

CBI also said the custody was required to find out the benami transactions.

The land where the Adarsh Housing Society was formed falls under coastal regulatory zone for which clearance from the ministry of environment and forests is essential.

CBI alleged Deshmukh had misused his official position as deputy secretary of the state urban development department and issued a letter to the collector, Mumbai, stating that MoEF has granted a No Objection certificate.