After a rap on its knuckles from the Bombay High Court for lackadaisical approach in probing the multi-crore Adarsh housing scam, the CBI today arrested four accused, including a retired brigadier.
CBI officials swooped down at the residence of Mr R.C. Thakur, a retired defence estates officer, and Brigadier (retired) M.M. Wanchoo and took them to its office.
Later, the duo, along with Mr P.V. Deshmukh, a former deputy secretary in the urban development department, were taken to a hospital for medical check-up, a formality before effecting an arrest.
The fourth accused, Mr Kanhaiyalal Gidwani, a former Congress MLC, has also been placed under arrest in the case. He is already in jail in connection with another case where an Income Tax consultant was allegedly bribed to dilute charges in the case. All the four are among 14 people named in the FIR registered by the CBI in January last year.
The action of the CBI comes barely two days ahead of another hearing before the Bombay High Court, which in its last hearing, had hit out at the CBI for its failure to act against the high and mighty.
These are the first arrests by the CBI ever since it registered a case in the multi-crore Adarsh housing scam in which the former Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Chavan, has also been named as an accused.
A division bench of the high court, comprising Justice P.B. Majmudar and Justice R.D. Dhanuka had questioned the CBI for delaying the arrests in the case.
“Why have you (the CBI) not arrested any of the accused yet? Are you feeling shy or are you just protecting the accused? If prima facie case is made out against anyone, then action should be taken irrespective of who that person is. Delay in such cases can be dangerous,” the bench had observed during its March 12 hearing.