Adarsh scam: Court rejects CBI plea to drop Ashok Chavan’s name

In a setback to former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan, a special CBI court on Saturday rejected the agency’s application to drop his name from the list of accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam case.
The CBI had filed the plea after state Governor K Sankaranarayanan rejected CBI’s application seeking to prosecute Chavan. Stating that the CBI’s plea “stands rejected”, special CBI judge S G Dighe said that despite the governor’s stand, Chavan could be tried under the Prevention of Corruption Act as he has been accused of criminal misconduct.
CBI lawyer B Badami said there was no provision under the law to appeal against the governor’s denial of sanction. “We have not received the copy of the order. Once we do, we will go through through the grounds on which our application was rejected and decide the next course of action,” Badami said.
On December 20, the state-appointed judicial commission report indicting Chavan was tabled in the Assembly. Governor K Sakaranarayanan had, however, refused sanction to prosecute Chavan days before that. Chavan contended that the CBI could not chargesheet him without the governor’s sanction.