Former state CM Ashok Chavan, who is one of the accused in the Adarsh scam case, landed in fresh trouble on Wednesday.
One of his relatives, Madanlal Sharma, on Wednesday informed the Adarsh commission that he got a flat in the society through a forged receipt. He further told the commission that he got membership in the society when Mr Chavan was CM. Mr Sharma, who also owns a flat in Andheri, had to forge documents to become a member of the Adarsh society — the society’s bylaws state that one cannot join the society if he/she owns a flat in Mumbai.
Mr Sharma, while deposing before the commission, alleged that on June 30, 2009 he had furnished a receipt to the Adarsh society which showed him as a tenant and his niece Amita (CM’s wife) as the owner of the Andheri flat.
He also informed the commission how he managed to cough up the money to pay for the flat in the society. He said that he had taken a loan of over `65 lakh from one Malav Shah in Pune. “Except for `50,000, the entire amount was paid through a loan taken from Shah. I don’t know who this Shah is. His grandfather Hiralal Shah is a family friend, but I don’t know him personally either,” Mr Sharma said.
He claimed that soon after the scam came to light, he had sent a letter to the society on October 29, 2010, seeking to withdraw his membership. “I did this willingly. I learnt through the media that there were allegations of irregularities in the society. It was causing embarrassment to our family... hence, I thought it best to withdraw my membership,” he said.
When the commission questioned Mr Sharma as to why he had applied for membership in Adarsh when he already had a flat in Andheri, Mr Sharma claimed that as he was old, he wanted to stay closer to his relatives.