The Bombay High Court today slammed the Enforcement Directorate for serious lapse and failure on its part to initiate probe for money laundering against members of scam-tainted Adarsh housing Society in Mumbai. A division bench of justices P B Majmudar and R D Dhanuka has summoned the Director of the investigating agency to appear before it on March 12.

The bench also raised concerns over the delayed probe by CBI which has been investigating the case since January last year. Asking CBI to file a status report on what progress has been made in the probe on the next date of hearing, the court said, if it is satisfied with the status report it will grant the CBI more time to investigate. It further said that a special team will have to be formed to probe the matter if the CBI fails to do so. CBI counsel Mandar Goswami told the court that the agency was also looking into 'benami' transactions and since there are 104 members, scrutiny of all the documents would take some time.

The court has also directed CBI to name all those members who have purchased flats through benami transactions in their status report to be filed on March 12. The court also raised a query with the Maharashtra government as to why it was not canceling the allotment given to those members who made such purchases.