Mumbai, July 4
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, senior bureaucrats and retired Army officers are among those named in the chargesheet filed by the CBI which is probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Union Ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde were not named in the chargesheet, sources said.

Apart from Chavan, the 10,000-page document filed before a court here today contains charges against former and serving bureaucrats, including former Deputy Secretary of Urban Development Department PV Deshmukh, former Maharashtra Information Officer Ramanand Tiwari and ex-Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak and former Collector of Mumbai Pradeep Vyas.

The names of several former military officials, including retired Major Generals AR Kumar, TK Kaul and former Brigadier MM Wanchoo feature in the chargesheet, sources said.

Provisions under various laws pertaining to corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy have been invoked against those named in the chargesheet. According to the chargesheet, Chavan during his tenure as the Revenue Minister altered the terms and conditions under which land was given to the society thus allowing 40 per cent of the flats in the building to be allotted to civilians. In addition, he is accused of allowing the society to increase its built-up area by 15 per cent. As a quid pro quo, three flats were allotted in the Adarsh Housing Society in the name of the relatives of Chavan's wife, the chargesheet said.

However, the petitioners whose public interest litigation has brought the Adarsh scam in the spotlight are unhappy with the chargesheet filed by the CBI. Their lawyer YP Singh, who assessed a copy of the chargesheet, the CBI had not done its job properly. The agency, he said, had not filed any serious charges against Chavan and other accused in the scam.

Claiming innocence, Chavan accused his political rivals of implicating him in the scam. "This is a conspiracy by my rivals to malign my reputation. The grant of permissions for the society is purely an administrative matter," Chavan told reporters shortly after the chargesheet was filed. Chavan claimed that he had nothing to do with the allotment of land for the society. "I have full faith in the judiciary. Let the truth prevail," he said.