Besides the vegetable vendor, the Adarsh scam traced its routes to the city in at least two cases. The report has, however, said both Army officers — former chairman of Adarsh CHS Brigadier M M Wanchoo, who is settled in the city, and Lt Gen Gurbaksh Singh Sihota, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Command during 2001-03 — were “eligible” to apply for a membership of the society. Talking about Wanchoo, who resigned from the position of chairman of the society after the scandal, the report says that in his declaration, he listed his income as Rs 9,550 per month and that the flat he has been allotted — number 1803, with carpet area of 650 sq ft — was purchased for Rs 59.5 lakh without any loan. The report says Wanchoo made the payment from savings of over 40 years’ service. “It is found that Brig Wanchoo is eligible to be a member of Adarsh CHS and his membership has been rightly approved by the GoM,” the report says. The report, however, says the promoters of the society acquired the land from Local Military Authority (LMA) in a mysterious way, which would not have been possible unless some Army officers had conspired with the chief promoters and secretary of the society with dishonest intention. The report thus raises suspicion on the allotment of flat to Wanchoo. Referring to the case of Lt Gen Sihota, the report says he was the GOC-in-C of Southern Command from 2001 till retirement, and read about Adarsh society coming up on a defence land in newspapers, following which he asked his staff officer to get full-fledged information about the society. “He submitted a report that the land in question does not belong to defence,” the report says. He thereafter made an application and was allotted flat number 1101 in A wing with carpet area of 1,076 sq ft, on September 2, 2004. He raised Rs 88 lakh towards the payment of the flat from his savings, retirement benefits, money borrowed from his mother-in-law as well as a loan of Rs 19 lakh from ICICI Bank in Nagpur. The loan was foreclosed by selling his agricultural land in Jalandhar..” “He had shown his annual income as Rs 5 lakh,” the report says, adding, “He was a high-ranking officer, next to Chief of Army Staff and therefore permissible FSI of his entitlement is 1,076 sq ft.” Adding that Lt Gen Sihota was nearing his retirement and that neither he or his wife had membership of any cooperative housing society in Mumbai, the report says, “Lt Gen Sihota was eligible for membership of Adarsh CHS and it has been rightly granted.” Interestingly, the report has a passing mention of a milk vendor from Pune, one Sangram Gade, who extended a loan of Rs 13.50 lakh to Raghunath Bhosale, who was allotted a 650 sq ft flat in Adarsh. The report calls Bhosale a benami owner of the property.
