Adarsh: Cong leader owned 3 benami flats,says CBI

Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and his sons allegedly bought the apartments in names of proxies.

All three apartments believed to be owned by Maharashtra Congress leader Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and his sons in Mumbais Adarsh Co-operative Society were allegedly bought in the names of proxies,one of whom neither had a PAN nor had filed Income Tax returns,the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday.

The CBIs claim was made in an affidavit filed in response to a petition by the society that sought defreezing of its two accounts in the State Bank of India.

The CBI had filed an FIR on January 29 naming 13 people as accused,including Gidwani and former chief minister Ashok Chavan,in the housing scam.

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The society had contended that it was not among the accused named in the FIR and there was no reason to freeze its accounts.

The affidavit,filed by CBI Additional Superintendent Ravindra Singh,says that although the society is not an accused in the case,all transactions related to accused persons in this case are flowing from this (frozen) account and the operations thereof are being carried out by the office-bearers of the society.

Citing Gidwanis case,the affidavit says the three flats held by Gidwani and his sons were in the name of Gajanan Koli,Amol Kharbhari and Kiran Bhadange,who were shown to have received loans from the Gidwanis and Apeksha Impex Private Limited,a firm said to belong to Gidwani.

Of these,Kharbhari does not have a PAN of his own and has not even filed any IT returns, Singh said. This prima facie indicates that all the three flats are benami and belonging to KL Gidwani.

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Reached for his comments,Gidwani,a former state Congress spokesman,said: Since the matter is sub-judice I wouldnt like to comment but whatever justification needs to be given,we will give before the appropriate authority.

Adarsh counsel Satish Maneshinde said the society needed to meet its statutory expenses for which the accounts had to be defrozen.

Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice RG Ketkar asked the society to state on affidavit its statutory expenses by March 25,after which the CBI would consider letting it use the accounts.