Sancheti, Shah get witness summons

MUMBAI: The Adarsh commission has issued summons to Abhay Sancheti, a partner in San Finance Corporation, Kolhapur-based builder Umesh Shinde and Pune builder Jayant Shah to appear as witnesses in the inquiry proceedings. Sancheti and Shinde are under the scanner for the unsecured loans they extended to persons to buy flats in Adarsh. Shah's son Malav Shah reportedly gave a loan of Rs 65.05 lakh to Ashok Chavan's mother-in-law Bhagwati Sharma and Rs 70.51 lakh to the former chief minister's relative Madanlal Sharma.The commission comprising Justice (retired) J A Patil and member P Subrahmanyam have also issued witness summons to ICICI Bank, Nagpur over the loans it had sanctioned for many Adarsh members.
Commission's secretary N Kumbhar confirmed that the summons had been issued. While Abhay has already filed his affidavit, Shah and ICICI bank have to file their affidavits on August 4, and Shinde has to submit his affidavit on August 9.
In his affidavit, Abhay said that SFC had extended loans to 10 Adarsh members, including his son Paramveer Sancheti. The other partner in SFC is BJP Rajya sabha MP Ajay Sancheti.
The commission is inquiring into the nature of the loans, in the background of allegation of benami flats. TOI had reported how many of the flats were adjacent to each other. Shinde, the chairman of Vidyapeeth Society and runs Raj Devendra Construction Ltd, has given loans of Rs 38 lakh each to two teachers-Vishwas Chougule and Raghunath Bhosale-who work in his educational institution to buy flats in Adarsh. Both Chougule and Bhosale gave Shinde's residence as their c/o addresses in their documents and were allotted adjacent flats in the controversial building.
Shah's son Malav had borrowed Rs 10.95 lakh from him to buy a flat in Adarsh. But Malav himself extended loans to Chavan's relatives. Shah is also alleged to have loaned over Rs 70 lakh to former Congress MLC and accused in the case, Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and his family.
In many cases, Adarsh members who had secured the loans had claimed that they had not given any security for the huge loans. On Wednesday, the commission pointedly asked Chougule: "Is it correct to say that the flat has been bought by Shinde in your name?" However, Chougule denied it.