CBI has filed the charge sheet in Mumbai’s Adarsh Housing Society scam naming a total of 13 accused. The 10,000-page charge sheet filed in Mumbai’s sessions’ court on Wednesday names former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan as one of the accused along with several army officials and bureaucrats.

All the accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The charge sheet has been filed nearly 18 months after the First Information Report was filed. The Adarsh scam had fuelled a political storm in Maharashtra leading to the resignation of Ashok Chavan as Chief Minister.

Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Ashok Chavan on Wednesday said that the Adarsh issue has been blown out of proportion. Terming the CBI charge sheet as unfortunate and unexpected; Mr. Chavan said that his political rivals are trying to implicate him in the case.

Mr. Chavan said that Adarsh is only an administrative matter and reiterated that he was not associated with allotment of land to Adarsh society. Mr. Chavan added that he had full faith in judiciary and was confident of emerging out of this case as innocent and unscathed.

On the other hand, BJP has demanded a thorough probe into the role of other Congress leaders. Clearing pointing fingers at former Maharashtra Chief Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Eknath Khadse said that all those who have handled Adarsh files and gave permissions should also be probed.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Bombay High Court allowed the Ministry of Defence to intervene in the PILs in the Adarsh scam. The division bench of Justice S A Bobade and Justice Mridula Bhatkar directed the Ministry of Defence to file an affidavit within two weeks in response to the Maharashtra government's stand that CBI cannot probe the Adarsh case. The Court allowed the Ministry to have access to all the related documents and adjourned the hearing till 18th July.