Move quickly on Adarsh

Impelled into action by the Bombay High Court, which recently expressed its displeasure over the tardy probe into the Adarsh Housing Society scam case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a criminal case against 13 persons and conducted searches in the premises of five of them. The scandal, which revolves around how apartments in a Mumbai cooperative housing society earmarked for families of Kargil heroes were diverted to relatives of influential Maharashtra politicians and senior armed forces officials, has jolted the nation's collective conscience. The FIR names bureaucrats, retired and serving armed forces officers, and politicians, one of them being former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who as the State Revenue Minister dealt with the Adarsh land files between 2001 and 2003. While some of those named in the FIR played a key role in promoting the cooperative housing society, the CBI must investigate — efficiently, independently, and without giving in to pressure — the full dimension of the racket, which could not have been pulled off without the active cooperation or tacit approval of other powerful politicians belonging to the ruling alliance.