The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has claimed that an important file related to the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society in Colaba has gone missing from its offices, a claim that the CBI fears might become a frequent method of evasion.
According to CBI sources, the file was a crucial link in its investigations into the Adarsh Society scam. The CBI had written to the MoEF in January this year requesting that the file be sent for examination. However, the MoEF wrote back to the Central Bureau of Investigation last week saying the file was missing and could not be found. Earlier, the urban development (UD) department, too, had made a similar claim.
Meanwhile, admitting that a “new file” opened for the controversial Adarsh Society was missing, environment minister Jairam Ramesh tried to downplay the incident, saying it was not a “permanent” file and was liable to be “weeded out”.
“The file would not only have cleared several aspects of the case, but would have also shed light on any discrepancies on the part of the UD department,” a CBI source said on condition of anonymity.