Adarsh chairman Wanchoo resigns citing old age, poor health

In a fresh development, the Chairman of Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society and an accused in the multi-crore housing scam, Brigadier (retd) MM Wanchoo, has resigned from the post due to old age and poor health.

"I hereby tender my resignation from the post of the Chairman of the society due to my advancing age, poor health and deteriorating medical condition of my wife," said Wanchoo in his resignation letter to the Secretary of the Society.

Adarsh Society (File pic)

76-year-old Wanchoo, however, said he would continue to be the member of the Society. His lawyer Mukhtar Khan confirmed Wanchoo's resignation.u00a0

Adarsh Housing Society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and widows, ultimately came up as a 31-storey tower allegedly through collusion of bureaucrats, politicians and defence officers.

Several politicians, three former defence service chiefs and bureaucrats have cornered flats in the building that stands in the plush Colaba area.

Former Chief Ministers of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde had been called by Adarsh Commission of Inquiry to give testimony. Wanchoo is named as an accused in the case filed by CBI.

According to the agency, Wanchoo, along with Adarsh secretary RC Thakur, had allegedly conspired with the members of Defence services, officers of Maharashtra Government and others to illegally get the land allotted in favour of Adarsh cooperative Housing Society in which they were the members.

CBI arrested eight persons for their alleged role in the scam. Those included two retired Major Generals TK Kaul and AR Kumar, Wanchoo, former General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, Adarsh promoter Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and Pradeep Vyas, the then city collector and currently, Finance secretary(expenditure) in State Government.

However, most of them, including Wanchoo, got bail on May 29, 2012. The two-member inquiry commission set up to probe the case is likely to submit its final report next week. u00a0