Mumbai, Oct 24:Sudhakar Madke, a driver, and Suresh Atram, a peon, working in firms set up by BJP MP Ajay Sancheti, said to be close to party chief Nitin Gadkari, bought a flat each worth Rs 60 lakhs in the controversial Adarsh society, Times of India reported quoting an unnamed senior bureaucrat.
Vishal Kedari, a vegetable vendor in Pune cantonment area, with an income of less than Rs 10,000 p.m., also bought a flat worth Rs 60 lakh in Adarsh society, the report said.
In his deposition before the commission probing the Adarsh scam, Sudhakar Madke, who has never visited Mumbai, submitted that he had been granted an unsecured loan of Rs 60 lakh by his employer. Similarly, Atram also secured a Rs 60 lakh loan from Sancheti.
The report said, Sancheti's firm extended unsecured loans to 10 persons for buying a flat each in Adarsh society, and in return, secured undertakings from them, saying that in the event they were unable to repay the loan, the flats would automatically be transferred to Sancheti's firm.
"Our information is that Madke, Atram and Kedari came to know that they were owners of the flats only after the Adarsh scam rocked the nation", the bureaucrat told TOI.
A former chief secretary said, there are a large number of politicians and bureaucrats who use their drivers and peons for such benami transactions.
"In some cases, it ha been revealed that drivers or peons of some veteran politicians also head cooperative societies floated by them", the bureaucrat said.
