Adarsh: Navy officer settled in New Zealand given domicile for flat?

Shibu Thomas.

Three years after retired Navy captain Praveen Kumar (60) became a citizen of New Zealand, the authorities in Mumbai not only issued him a domicile certificate but also allotted him a flat in Adarsh. This startling revelation was made before the judicial commission probing the Adarsh scam on Friday.

Retired Navy captain Praveen Kumar migrated to New Zealand in 2003, surrendered his Indian passport in 2006, and became a New Zealand citizen in 2007. Three years later, in July 2010, the tehsildar issued him a domicile certificate certifying that he was a resident of Maharashtra; in September 2010 the then Mumbai collector approved Kumar?s membership in Adarsh allotting him a 605 sq ft flat.

Kumar retired from the Indian Navy after 24 years of service in 1996. He currently lives in Auckland, where he claimed he writes books. Between 2003 and 2008 his annual income was around NZ $50,000-60,000. Kumar paid around Rs 70 lakh for his 2BHK flat in Adarsh. During his grilling , it came to light that he had concealed his New Zealand citizenship from the authorities by senior advocate Dipan Merchant and advocate Bharat Zhaveri, counsel for the commission, as well as advocate M Vasudev, counsel for the state government,

Confronted with a letter dated December 8, 2008 written by him to the Mumbai collector, Kumar said, ?In this letter I had given my address as 20/B Sheetal Apartments, Ghatkopar. I had taken this room on rent. But in fact I sent this letter from New Zealand.? When questioned about why he did not mention his New Zealand address in the letter, Kumar chose to blame Adarsh accused and society promoter R C Thakur. ?I did not mention my New Zealand address in this letter because Thakur told me that I should maintain my address in Mumbai to make my case stronger,? claimed Kumar. ?At no point of time did I inform the collector that I had shifted to New Zealand.?

Subsequently, he was shown an affidavit he had filed in May 2008, where he claimed that he was ?a resident of Maharashtra and residing in Maharashtra since 1968 being in naval services of the Ministry of Defence?. Kumar confessed: ?It is true that on the date of this affidavit I was a resident of New Zealand.? In July 2010 he was given a domicile certificate. ?On the date of this certificate I was residing in New Zealand. It is true that in my application and affidavit I did not disclose the fact of my residence and citizenship of New Zealand.? He further admitted that when he got his New Zealand citizenship, he had surrendered his Indian passport.

Captain (Retd) Kumar went on to claim that he had dual citizenship. This claim is questionable as India does not grant dual citizenship. Kumar also claimed that the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court had ruled in his favour in a contempt petition he had filed against the authorities in an Adarsh-related matter. However, TOI checked out a copy of the order dated September 23, 2010 (Contempt petition 77 of 2010), where the high court in fact has dismissed the petition.

Government sources, however, claimed that since he had applied for membership to Adarsh in 1999, the domicile is for the 15 years preceding that date. ?The question is does his New Zealand citizenship disqualify him from a flat in Adarsh?? said an officer.

-via The Times of India.

Source: http://indianmilitarynews.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/adarsh-navy-officer-settled-in-new-zealand-given-domicile-for-flat%E2%80%8E/

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