MUMBAI: In an embarrassment for the Congress, the name of Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma, mother-in-law of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, has been found on the list of flat owners in the controversial Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society. It is a 31-story skyscraper in the posh Colaba locality in south Mumbai.

The 103 members' society is alleged to have been illegally constructed by former high-ranking Indian defense officials and has a posse of influential politicians, powerful bureaucrats and relatives of politicians. Each flat in the society with a market value between Rupees 6 crore and 8.5 crore was sold at dirt-cheap prices ranging between Rupees 45 and 70 lakh. The state government is said to have given the land in the prime location at highest concession rate.

According to sources, the information about Chavan's mother-in-law being one of the allottees in the housing scam was given by the opponents of the chief minister to the media to embarrass him.

Flat No. 103 in the society is in the name of late Shankarrao B. Chavan, who was a chief minister of the state and father of the current chief minister and therefore it is being alleged that the chief minister has a direct or indirect stake in the flat.

The army officers were sanctioned the land by the state government, which was meant to construct houses for the Kargil war widows. Unfortunately not a single widow has been given a flat in the society. Naval officers have complained that the society, adjacent to the sensitive naval locality, has been grabbed by senior serving and retired officers.

Now it has been revealed that even politicians and bureaucrats have bought flats in the society that includes Jitendra Awwad a close confidante of federal agriculture minister and NCP supremo Sharad Pawar; Sena leader Suresh Prabhu; former Congress legislator Kanhaiyalal Gidwani and his sons Kailash and Amit; former state chief secretary K. Shankaran; Indian Foreign Service officer Devyani Khobragde; former Mumbai Collector and presently state joint secretary (planning) IA Kundan; former deputy secretary PV Deshmukh, Kanishkar J. Phatak son of former Mumbai Bombay Municipal Corporation Jairaj Phatak; Seema Vyas state Food and Drugs Administration Commissioner; Rajesh Kumar Das vice president Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation; Ranjit Sangitrao son of state transport secretary CS Sangitarao and former Urban Development secretary Ramanand Tiwari.  The Mumbai unit of Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has started an investigation into the scam. The CBI has directed the secretary of the society to furnish complete details within a week.

Meanwhile, the chief of the army staff of the Indian army, Lt. Gen. VK Singh, has also ordered an inquiry into the scam. Defense Minister A.K. Anthony has also given information about the scam to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.