Lalla, who was secretary in the Chief Minister's Office when the Housing Society's file was being processed in the state secretariat, is the first bureaucrat to resign for his alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam.
In fresh trouble for members of the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society, which is already under a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Enforcement Directorate has issued notices to the Society and its members, asking them to furnish information regarding payment towards the purchase of flats. The ED began its probe into allegations of money laundering and benami transactions after facing severe criticism from the Bombay high court.
The Army said on Wednesday that it is carrying out an inquiry into Mumbai's Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society row in which a high-rise building has been constructed in alleged violation of rules with beneficiaries being former services chiefs, politicians and bureaucrats.
The two-member panel, which had submitted its interim report to the government last Friday, has also held that the building was not reserved for war heroes and Kargil widows.
In a major setback for the Congress ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who announced his resignation from the Congress party on Monday, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday.
'Chavan's political clout began declining since his Lok Sabha defeat in 2019.'
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mumbai on Tuesday, a day after quitting the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday described as "mere eyewash" the removal of Ashok Chavan as Maharashtra Chief Minister and Suresh Kalmadi being stripped off key posts and demanded probe against all those directly or indirectly involved in Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society and Commonwealth Games scams.
Earlier, the Navy had informed the Central Bureau of Investigation that it had not given clearance for the construction of the building.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday pleaded his innocence in the Adarsh housing society scam, saying he never cleared any files relating to the project.
Ashok Chavan on Tuesday said his resignation as Maharashtra chief minister does not prove his guilt in the Adarsh Housing Society scam and claimed he was '100 per cent' sure that he will come clean on the issue. "Acceptance of my resignation by the Congress does not prove my guilt in the Adarsh Housing Society scam," Chavan told reporters after tendering his resignation to Governor K Sankaranarayanan. "I resigned because of Cong's moral stand on such issues," he said.
Stung by the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the army is all set to order a court of inquiry into it while the defence ministry plans to slap show cause notices against serving officers.
Completing a full term as chief minister of Maharashtra has always eluded the incumbent leader due to various reasons from controversies to factionalism in the ruling party.
Two years after it was set up, the two-member commission which inquired into Adarsh Housing Society scam submitted its final report to Maharashtra government on Thursday.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday rejected the bail pleas of six accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, including former Maharashtra bureaucrats Jairaj Pathak and Ramanand Tiwari. The court refused to grant them liberty, accepting CBI's argument that the investigation was still in progress.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday detained two people, including an IAS officer, for alleged irregularities in granting sanction to the multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai. The two -- former Maharashtra Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Ramanand Tiwari and IAS officer Jairaj Pathak -- were called on Tuesday morning to the CBI office in Mumbai and questioned extensively by the agency in connection with the scam.
The ruling Congress in Maharashtra has cut a sorry figure after its leader, former chief minister Ashok Chavan, has been chargesheeted in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The defence ministry on Friday filed a title suit before the Bombay high court seeking claim on the land on which the scam-hit Adarsh Housing Society building stands, alleging the residential complex has been constructed 'illegally and unlawfully'.
Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, named an accused in the Adarsh housing society scam, on Monday continued pointing fingers at his predecessor and Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for decisions taken while allotting land to the controversial housing society.
Amid apprehensions that several important files relating to the Adarsh Housing Society scam may have been destroyed in Thursday's fire at 'Mantralaya', officials of the CBI and the judicial panel probing it said they have copies of all relevant documents.
Stating that it was well within its powers to probe the Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation has informed the Bombay high court that it did not require the consent of the Maharashtra government to investigate individual cases as the state, through an order passed in 1989, had allowed the agency to exercise its power and jurisdiction in the state.
The ministry of defence on Friday filed an intervening application in the Bombay high court opposing the petition filed by former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan seeking to quash the FIR lodged against him by CBI in the Adarsh housing society scam.
The special court in Mumbai on Thursday extended the Central Bureau of Investigation custody of former Principal Secretary of Maharashtra's Urban Development Department, Ramanand Tiwari, and former Mumbai municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak, till April 17 in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.
Observing that investigations had reached a crucial stage, a special court today rejected the bail plea of seven accused, including former Congress legislator K L Gidwani, in the multi-crore Adarsh housing society scam.
Senior IAS officers Pradeep Vyas and Jairaj Phatak have been placed under suspension pending investigation in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, Maharashtra government informed the Bombay high court on Thursday.
Three former government employees, including retired defence estates officer, R C Thakur and Brigadier (retd) M M Wanchoo, arrested on Tuesday in the Adarsh Housing Society scam, were on Wednesday remanded to the Central Bureau of Investigation custody till March 31.
Nearly two months after he was chargesheeted in the Adarsh housing society scam, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan on Monday moved the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the cheating and corruption case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Shinde was the chief minister of Maharashtra from 2001 to 2003 when he cleared many files including allotment of land to Adarsh.
Of the nine accused, those who secured bail include IAS officer Pradeep Vyas, former deputy secretary in Urban Development Department P V Deshmukh, Brigadier (retd) M M Wanchoo, retired Defence Estates Officer R C Thakur, Major General (Retd) A R Kumar, Major Gen (Retd) T K Kaul and former MLC Kanhaiyyalal Gidwani.
Some more files pertaining to the controversial Mumbai's Adarsh Housing Society have gone missing, this time from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in New Delhi, a senior Central Bureau of Investigation official said on Saturday.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday accused the ruling Congress in Maharashtra of carrying on a cover-up operation to avoid the arrest of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in Adarsh Housing Society scam.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, probing the multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society scam, has recorded the statement of Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who had dealt with files pertaining to the society during his tenure as Maharashtra chief binister.
The Bombay high court on Thursday asked the counsel of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan if the petition filed by Chavan seeking quashing of a First Information Report lodged by the centralBureau of Investigation in the Adarsh Housing Society scam can be heard now, since the charge sheet has been already filed in the case.
Alleging that all government authorities were ganging up on Adarsh Housing Society, the society's counsel on Friday told the Bombay High Court that the Ministry of Environment and Forests had cleared various construction projects in the city without insisting for a clearance from the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority.
Maharashtra Industries Minister and Congress leader Narayan Rane on Wednesday claimed that had not taken any decision regarding the controversial Adarsh Housing Society during his tenure as the chief minister. Making a suo-motu statement in the Legislative Assembly in Mumbai, Rane said an application regarding the proposed society had come to him on September 21, 1999. He said he forwarded the application to the revenue department with the remark "submit a report immediately"
Reacting to the Environment Ministry's decision to demolish the 31-storey Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai, the society's counsel, Satish Maneshinde on Sunday said that the tenor of the order is completely malafide.
A retired Navy captain, who became a citizen of New Zealand in 2007, was issued a domicile certificate of Maharashtra in 2010 and alloted a flat in the scam-tainted Adarsh Housing Society, the judicial panel probing the case has been told.
Contesting Environment Ministry's show-cause notice, Mumbai's scam-hit Adarsh Housing Society on Monday demanded an immediate end to proceedings against it, insisting that it had got all the required clearances and the contention otherwise was "misplaced and incorrect".
Former city collector Pradeep Vyas on Saturday told the judicial panel probing the Adarsh Housing Society scam that the corrigendum issued by Maharashtra government on the ownership and possession of the land on which the society stands, was "factually incorrect". He also conceded that the land was in defence ministry's possession then, contrary to the corrigendum.
In an apparent reference to Mumbai's Adarsh housing society scam, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said the case should be disposed of speedily and the guilty should be brought to justice.
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