Will react to leaked CAG report after it is tabled in Maharashtra Assembly: Deshmukh

New Delhi, Apr.5 (ANI): Union Science and Technology Minister and former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Thursday said that he would react to the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) indictment of him in connection with several alleged land scams after the CAG report is tabled in the Maharashtra State Assembly.

"I will react after the CAG report is tabled. I am certain my name will be cleared," a television channel quoted him, as saying.

In the CAG report, Deshmukh has been accused of giving preferential allotment of a plot in Mumbai to a trust founded by him and holding on to it for four years in breach of conditions.

The 23,840 square meter plot in suburban Borivali was allotted to the Manjara Charitable Trust by the government on September 28, 2005, when Deshmukh was chief minister, for opening a dental college at an occupancy price of Rs.6.56 crore.

Apart from Deshmukh, state cabinet ministers Narayan Rane, Chhagan Bhujbal, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Patangrao Kadam have also been accused of being involved in the land scam.

Deshmukh has also been accused of giving land at a cheap price to film-maker Subhash Ghai for building a film training institute called Whistling Woods.

With the Supreme Court ordering a return of most of the land to the custody of the Maharashtra Government and pulling up Deshmukh for sanctioning the project in the first place, the latter has said that he will be appealing against the court's remarks. (ANI)