Adarsh allotted flatto vegetable vendor

MUMBAI: The judicial commission probing the Adarsh scam found on Wednesday that a vegetable vendor from Pune was allotted a flat in the Colaba housing society. Vishal Kedari (34), who lives in an illegal structure in Pune's cantonment, said he paid around Rs 60 lakh for a sea-view flat in the society after taking loans from friends. On the suspicion that he was a front for someone else, he said it was baseless.
"I sell vegetables on the roadside and I do social work," Kedari told the commission. "In 2007, I came to know that flats were available in Adarsh from Sevak Nayyar, who was then working in the defence estate office in Pune. I told him I desired to have a home in Mumbai."
A certificate issued by the Pune tehsildar in 2008 showed Kedari's annual income as Rs 1.90 lakh. When the commission asked the vendor about discrepancies in his balance sheet, Kedari could not give them a reply to its satisfaction.
He told the commission he paid Rs 59.1 lakh for a 650 sqft flat in Adarsh. "My own contribution towards the purchase was Rs 3.51 lakh," he said. Giving details of the loans he took, Kedari said Rs 10 lakh came from a family friend, Sunil Advani, Rs 20 lakh from Advani's friend Amit Thepade, a builder, Rs 3 lakh from Nayyar and Rs 28 lakh from Nayyar's wife.
Kedar claimed that he had not yet repaid the loans, which he said were interest-free. He was then confronted with a letter he wrote to Adarsh for a change of address. He admitted he made the request-for changing his address from Khadki, where he lives, to Lulla Nagar, where Nayyar has his residence. Nevertheless he denied the suspicion that he was a benami for the defence officer. "It will not be correct to say that Nayyar gave me a loan for buying a flat for himself. My plan was to give the Adarsh flat on rent," Kedari said.