Bombay High Court reserves order on CBI plea to drop Ashok Chavan’s name

As far as granting 15 per cent exemption on recreation ground (RG) was concerned, Desai contended that not granting benefit to the society would have meant discrimination as it was in public interest and led to legal implications. “There are dozens of examples of giving 15 per cent RG by the state government in the last 20 years,” he contended. “The process had begun several months before he became the CM,” said Desai, adding that Chavan had only put his initials on the application, which passed through several departments of the state government.

Desai also said that when Chavan’s relatives had applied for membership in the society, he was not holding the CM’s post.

In addition, CBI’s lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar submitted that former Governor K Sankaranarayanan had refused to grant sanction on the ground that there was no material given by CBI to show criminal conspiracy or prosecute him under Section 120 (b) of the IPC. Relying on this, Venegaonkar contended that Section 13 1(d) (criminal misconduct by government servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act will not stand as the allegations are of only granting exemption of 15 per cent RG to Adarsh, but it was within his powers.

Venegaonkar submitted that all the flats allotted to the relatives were prior to the order of the exemption given by Chavan, therefore, there was no abuse of power.

The agency had, on January 15, filed an application in the Special Court seeking to drop Chavan’s name after the then Governor, on December 17, 2013, refused to grant sanction to prosecute Chavan.

aamir.khan@expressindia.com