BackAdarsh scam: CBI gets nod to prosecute Ashok Chavan
Chavan and 12 others have been booked under section 120(b) of the IPC
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Mumbai: In a jolt to the Congress, Maharashtra governor C. Vidyasagar Rao on Thursday allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute Maharashtra Congress president and former chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing scam.
The previous governor, K. Sankaranarayanan, on advice given by the then Congress-led government in 2014, had refused the sanction, following which the CBI had requested permission from the Bombay high court to delete Chavan’s name from the first information report (FIR) filed in the case.
In October 2015, the CBI on the orders of the high court again wrote to the governor seeking sanction to proceed against Chavan, who is also a Congress MP from Nanded in Maharashtra. The governor asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government for advice. In January, the state cabinet advised the governor to give the sanction.
The Indian Penal Code mandates that consent from the president of India or a state governor is necessary to prosecute a sitting member of Parliament or a state legislature. Also, the FIR filed by the CBI in the Adarsh case in 2011 mentions Chavan’s involvement when he was Maharashtra’s revenue minister and a member of the state legislative assembly.
Chavan and 12 others have been booked under section 120(b) of the IPC. His alleged involvement in the Adarsh scam forced Chavan to step down as the chief minister in November 2010. The scam involves construction of a high-rise residential apartment in Mumbai’s tony Cuffe Parade area in violation of several rules. Chavan has been accused of granting additional floor space index to the apartment in lieu of two flats for his kin and also giving his permission as revenue minister for allotting 40% flats to civilians when the apartment was originally approved as a residential project for the widows of the Kargil war martyrs and defence personnel.
The governor’s sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan has come at a time when the opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra are fighting a spate of corruption cases. Last month, when the governor had asked the state cabinet for its advice, Chavan had termed action against him as political vendetta. He was not available on Thursday for comments.
Earlier this week, the Enforcement Directorate raided nine residential and commercial properties belonging to NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his kin, and companies linked to him. The ED has also arrested Bhujbal’s nephew and former MP Sameer Bhujbal. This week, Maharashtra’s water resources ministry said the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is close to filing a charge-sheet against NCP leaders Ajit Pawar, Sunil Tatkare, and others in the case involving financial irregularities and deliberate cost escalation in three irrigation projects in Konkan.
NCP president Sharad Pawar has defended Bhujbal and accused the BJP government of abuse of power against political opponents.
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