Adarsh land existed during British raj

Attacking the state government’s contention that the Adarsh land was reclaimed in the 1970s, the counsel for the ministry of defence asked the state to produce documents to ratify its claim.

Attacking the state government’s contention that the Adarsh land was reclaimed in the 1970s, the counsel for the ministry of defence asked the state to produce documents to ratify its claim.

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AJ Rana, counsel of ministry of defence (MoD), told the two-member commission of retired high court justice JA Patil and former state chief secretary P Subrahmanium that the land existed even during the British period and was not reclaimed.

The commission was set up in January this year to probe the Adarsh scam. The counsel asked the state government’s counsels to produce the documents that would prove that the land was reclaimed post-1973.

Rana asked Sanjay Dhikhle, superintendent of city survey and land records, if the same plot was requested for construction of a rest house for army personnel.

Dhikhle, however, told the commission that he was not aware if the land on which Adarsh Society stands was the same one sought for the rest house. The MoD counsel also presented the correspondence between the army and the collectorate in which permission was sought to construct the rest house.

Former civic chief Jairaj Phatak was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the scam on Friday. Phatak has been named as an accused in the scam along with 13 others.