Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan has been too solicitous of himself in expressing surprise about being chargesheeted by the CBI on Wednesday in Mumbai’s Adarsh Society housing scam, which in 2010 became emblematic of corruption in high places in India.
The question he needs to ask himself is why the crooked promoters of the project — who were permitted by the politician-bureaucrat nexus to grab prime land in fashionable South Mumbai on false pretexts — gave three of his close relatives a flat each in the controversial complex.
If Mr Chavan’s inclusion in the chargesheet causes little surprise, the exclusion of two other former CMs — Sushilkumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh — appears to be a little surprising. The guilt or otherwise of the three leaders of the state can only be established by the court, but going by reported facts all three need to prove their innocence. The case is much too serious for an alternative consideration to prevail. We can only hope the CBI will file supplementary chargesheets that will embrace the two excluded leaders. Public confidence in the country’s justice system will be boosted if the trial in this case is begun quickly and conducted expeditiously.
Mumbai is a cauldron of corruption in the real estate sector, given the severe demand-supply mismatch. Projects involving the redevelopment of former mill lands and reclaimed areas are suspected to involve top politicians of all parties. These could dwarf the Adarsh case in scale, and are crying out for exposure.