Former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation commissioner and a senior IAS officer, Jairaj Phatak is likely to be questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation this week. Mr Phatak is one of the 13 accused in the case.
A 1978 batch IAS officer of Maharashtra cadre, Mr Phatak was the BMC commissioner and the chair of the high-rise committee, when some of the permissions were granted to the controversial Adarsh Society. “Almost 50 per cent of the investigations are over. We have gathered enough documents and records of the society, which now need to be scrutinised further. Mr Phatak would be summoned anytime this week for questioning,” a senior CBI official said.
Terming it a normal procedure, the official said that all the accused would be questioned before the chargesheet was filed.
The FIR registered by the CBI on January 29 this year, said that Mr Phatak, as the BMC commissioner, had approved the proposal to increase the building’s height from 97 metres to 100.7 metres, on September 1, 2007. The society is accused of obtaining a host of concessions that breach the local laws and coastal regulation zone norms.
Mr Phatak was the head of the committee for highrise buildings, and the CBI claims that when Adarsh’s proposal came up, he did not seek the opinion of other members of the committee.
Mr Phatak’s son, Kanishka, was also allotted a flat in Adarsh in return for these favours, the CBI said. Mr Phatak, presently an additional secretary in the Union power ministry, has refuted the allegations and said that he was not even posted with the BMC when his son was allotted the flat in Adarsh.