Another Adarsh in the making in Pune?

Pune/Mumbai: The list of housing scams in Maharashtra is just growing. This time in Pune.

This four-acre piece of land in Lohegaon, earmarked for a defence personnel cooperative society was promoted as a residential scheme for Kargil war heroes.

But when the society was proposed names of several bureaucrats and police officers figured in the list.

The IAS officers include: Mohan Adtani, Vasantrao Vaidya, Vikas Deshmukh, Bajirao Jadhav and Shyam Vardhane.

The IPS officers whose names figured in the list are: Vishwas Pandhare, Anant Rokde, Rajkumar Vhatkar, Pradip Raskar and Suhas Warke.

Also in the list are two members of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's staff.

Two secretaries of Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane are also in the list.

The society received clearance in September 2010 during the tenure of former chief minister Ashok Chavan.

But after complaints of irregularities the allotment was cancelled in December last year.

Stung by the Adarsh scam, the Maharashtra Chief Minister has now promised action.

"Fixing accountability will be a key element of our government. If somebody had broken the law and violated rules then we will throw the book at them," said Prithviraj Chavan.

"There was a demand to add more members apart from the original list as without their help we would not get the land. In this way bureaucrats entered the society," said Ravi Barhate, the Builder.

With so many serving IAS and IPS officers involved it be a long time before the guilty are punished.


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Taxman's notice to SRK over 'gifted' Dubai villa

MUMBAI: A villa gifted to actor Shah Rukh Khan in Dubai has attracted the attention of tax authorities. The Income Tax (I-T) department served a notice on Khan towards the end of December for the Signature Villa valued at Rs 17.84 crore. A Dubai-based company had gifted it to him three years ago.

According to the I-T department, the villa received by Khan under a gift deed from Nakheel Public Joint Stock Company (Nakheel PJSC) was in return for lending his name to promote the company. For the assessment year 2008-09, Khan had, in April 2009, filed returns declaring income of Rs 126.31 crore. He said his income was from house, property, profession, capital gains and other sources.

Khan mentioned Dubai's Signature Villa, which is a part of The Palm, Jumeirah, as a gift given by Nakheel PJPC on September 16, 2007.

I-T department, however, assessed that the Villa was taxable and accordingly a notice was issued to Khan. The actor sent a reply to an initial notice on November 26, 2010, stating that the gift did not constitute his income from business or profession.

Nakheel, too, submitted a letter to the I-T department in October 2010, stating that Khan had not provided any professional services.

The company clarified that the actor attended the Annual day function as a gesture of friendship towards Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Nakheel PJSC's executive chairman.

However, the I-T department issued another notice on December 27, 2010 stating that Nakheel was using the brand name for endorsing its Palm Project since 2004 on its official website and electronic and print media. Also, Khan did not shown any receipts related to the endorsement.

The department alleged that for other endorsements, Khan was charging huge amounts as shown in his returns. ''The company is an artificial juristic person devoid of any natural senses such as love and affection. This rules out the concept ''natural love and affection'' and ''without any consideration'' ! which ar e vital elements to characterize the gift,'' said the demand notice.

According to the notice, an arrangement of business or transaction without putting it in writing and in good faith would under any circumstances be a business or transaction resulting in income/loss. The actor was not available for comment.