Adarsh society papers missing, police launch probe

MUMBAI - At least four important documents are missing from the files of the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society, and a case of theft has been filed by Mumbai Police, an official said Saturday.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjeev Dayal confirmed that a probe has been launched, but declined to give details of the case.

The Marine Drive police station Saturday lodged the case against unidentified people for the theft of the documents.

The complaint was filed by government official Gurudutt Vajpeyi, and the missing documents were dated between August 2009 and November 2010, officials said.

The papers, bearing signatures of important officials, pertain to the decisions and notings, and the correspondence with different agencies, during the ultimate stages before the project was cleared by the government.

The ‘theft’ apparently came to light when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found the relevant papers missing from the file submitted to it by the state government.

The Adarsh society shot into the limelight over a month ago and claimed the job of then chief minister Ashok Chavan after three of his relatives were found to be members in the 31-storey building meant for Kargil war widows and heroes.

The other members of the society situated in the plush Colaba in south Mumbai included politicians, retired army officers, senior bureaucrats or their relatives. They allegedly connived to grab the flats in the building which has come up in one of the most expensive pieces of real estate in the country.

While the army instituted its own internal inquiry into the matter, the state government moved to cancel the building’s occupation certificate, cut off its water and power supply and the CBI launched its own independent investigations.