Adarsh scam: Congress' Ashok Chavan challenges Maharashtra Governor's nod to prosecute him

Mumbai: Congress MP Ashok Chavan has approached the Bombay High Court challenging a decision of Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao granting sanction to CBI to prosecute him in the Adarsh housing society scam. In February this year, Governor Rao had granted sanction to the CBI to prosecute Chavan for offences under IPC sections 120 (b)(criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating and under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society case. [caption id=“attachment_1810835” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Former Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan. AFP[/caption] The CBI had accused the former state Chief Minister of approving additional floor space index for Adarsh society in return for two flats for his relatives. He was also charged with illegally approving, as the then Revenue Minister, allotment of 40 per cent of the flats to civilians. Chavan, in his petition filed recently, challenged the sanction order and said it was “arbitrary, illegal and unjust” and passed without “proper application of mind” and with “malafide intentions”. The petition, which came up for hearing on 22 December, was then adjourned. It will now come up for hearing before a division bench of the high court on January 23, 2017. Earlier, Chavan was forced to step down from the post of the Chief Minister in November 2010 after the allegations emerged against him. While the CBI named him as an accused in its FIR, in December 2013 the then Governor K Sankaranarayanan had refused permission to it to prosecute Chavan in the scam, leaving the central probe agency with no choice but to close the case against him. However, in March last year, the high court dismissed a plea made by Chavan, who is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Nanded, seeking deletion of his name from the case, as the Governor had refused to grant sanction. Following this, the CBI re-approached the Governor seeking sanction, which was granted in February this year.