Farm scam: Former navy chief denies role

Hindustan Times; New Delhi, November 19, 2010

Former navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar has written to the naval and air force headquarters that he had no role to play in a controversy-ridden housing project on the outskirts of Delhi, being probed by the defence ministry.

Kumar said he was the navy's vice-chief and not its chief of personnel when the Air Force Naval Housing Board (AFNHB) launched the scheme in May 1997. He has claimed his agricultural land is located several kilometres away from the AFNHB project site and was bought from farmers.

He said, "It's a battle between the AFNHB, the allottees and the promoter."

Those who had invested in the project straddling Noida and Faridabad have alleged that they are paying the price for senior officers not following due diligence when the land was bought. The property falls in a flood-prone zone, its ownership is questionable and it has been embroiled in a string of litigations in Delhi, Haryana and UP.

The ministry has asked the navy to submit a report on the alleged farmhouse scam in which the role of senior officials has come under the scanner for acquiring 300 acres of controversy-ridden land.

The AFNHB's chief, a two-star officer, reported to the navy's chief of personnel in the late 1990s. The air force had conducted an inquiry into the project a few years back but its findings have not been revealed. One of the allottees has appealed under the RTI Act to access the inquiry report and the military authorities have been given a December 2010 deadline. More than 220 allottees forked out Rs 6.8 lakh each for one-acre farms in 1996.