Journalism of Courage
In a relief to former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, the Bombay High Court Thursday stayed his prosecution in the Adarsh housing society scam case. The High Court was acting on an appeal of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that challenged a special CBI court order rejecting the investigating agency’s plea seeking to drop Chavan’s name from among the accused in the case.
The High Court accepted the submissions of CBI lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar contending that Chavan cannot be prosecuted as the central agency probing the case did not have the Maharashtra Governor’s sanction.
The agency had on January 15, filed an application in the special CBI court seeking to drop Chavan’s name from the chargesheet in the case. The Governor had, on December 17, 2013, refused to grant sanction to prosecute Chavan.
The special court in its order turning down the CBI’s plea, noted that the governor refused sanction on several grounds, particularly on the ground that the circumstantial evidence collected by the CBI did not prima facie show the commission of an offence on Chavan’s part. As a result, the CBI sought the deletion of his name from the case, as he cannot be prosecuted for offences punishable under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Governor refused sanction under Section 197 (prosecution of public servants) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for prosecution against Chavan under Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of IPC.
The CBI had contended that the sanction would be required as Chavan was a sitting MLA and revenue minister at the time when the alleged offence was committed, between October 1999 and October 2004. The sanction, the CBI told the court, would be required to prosecute Chavan under the IPC for criminal conspiracy without which the prosecution could not have proceeded under the sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On January 18, the special CBI court, however, rejected the CBI’s plea observing that Chavan’s name cannot be deleted as he has challenged the competency of CBI to investigate the case which is pending before the High Court. The Special Court also said offences against Chavan under Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act were a “separate offence.”
The agency, in its chargesheet, had alleged that Chavan had increased the floor space index of the controversial Adarsh Society in lieu of two flats allotted to his relatives. The CBI also alleged that Chavan asked the society to take 40 per cent members from civilian category, when it was originally meant only for war veterans.
The commission report also said the Adarsh scheme enjoyed political patronage from the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ashok Chavan and NCP ministers Sunil Tatkare and Rajesh Tope.
aamir.khan@expressindia.com
