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The searches were conducted at the residences and other places of the society`s general secretary R C Thakur, retired Brigadier M M Wanchoo and Congress leader K L Gidwani in various parts of Maharashtra and Bihar. The office of the Adarsh society located in posh Colaba here was among the places raided.

The raids come a day after the CBI filed an FIR naming 13 people, including former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and some retired senior Army officials.

"Searches are being conducted at Thakur`s residences in Bihar, Nagpur and Thane and Wanchoo`s house in Pune and Gidwani`s house in Mumbai. Searches are also being conducted at the office of Adarsh society," a senior CBI official said.

According to CBI sources, Thakur, Wanchoo and Gidwani were allegedly the prime movers in building the society. All the three are accused of usurping land not belonging to them and illegally grabbing it, the sources said.

Thakur was the then sub-divisional officer at the Defence Estate Office of Mumbai while Gidwani, a former Congress MLC, was the chief promoter of the society.

Apart from Chavan and the trio, the FIR also names retired Lt General P K Rampal, Major Generals A R Kumar and T K Kaul, the then Principal Secretary (Urban Development) Ramanand Tiwari, who was recently suspended by Maharashtra government as Information Commissioner, Subash Lala, the then Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister and Brig (retd) R C Sharma.

The FIR has been filed under various sections of IPC including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and showing forged document as genuine besides sections pertaining to Prevention of Corruption Act.

Chavan, who had to quit as chief minister last year after it was found that his family members also owned flats in the society, was revenue minister between 2001-2003 and had dealt with files pertaining to the ownership of the land.