Have accepted earlier court orders on Ashok Chavan: CBI to Bombay High Court on Adarsh scam

The CBI today told the Bombay High Court it has accepted the orders of a lower court and the HC holding its pleas to remove Congress leader Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan (File | PTI)

MUMBAI: The CBI today told the Bombay High Court it has accepted the orders of a lower court and the HC holding its pleas to remove Congress leader Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused in the Adarsh Society scam as "wrong and bad in law".

The agency had in 2014 filed an application in a special CBI court for removing Chavan's name from the list of the accused after Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao denied it permission to prosecute the former Maharashtra chief minister.

The court had rejected the plea. The CBI had then approached the HC, which also dismissed the application.

In 2015, the CBI requested Rao to review his decision, saying there was fresh evidence against Chavan.

In February 2016, the governor granted permission to the CBI to prosecute Chavan. The Congress leader later challenged the governor's order in the HC.

CBI lawyer Hiten Venegaonkar today told the division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Sadhana Jadhav, which is hearing Chavan's petition, the agency has accepted the courts' orders dismissing its pleas.

"We accept the court orders holding CBI's applications as bad in law and wrong. We have not appealed against the orders in the Supreme Court," he said.

Venegaonkar was responding to Justice Jadhav's question whether the CBI acted in haste in approaching the court for removal of Chavan's name from the list of the accused, instead of seeking a review of the governor's order.

Meanwhile, the CBI opposed Chavan's petition.

If the court allows the plea, it would amount to his acquittal and render the entire probe futile, it said.

The hearing will continue tomorrow.

The governor had in February 2016 allowed the CBI to prosecute Chavan under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Chavan's petition claims the governor's order was "arbitrary, illegal and unjust" and was passed with "malafide intentions".

The CBI has accused Chavan, the chief of Maharashtra Congress, of approving additional floor space index (FSI) for Adarsh society in a plush south Mumbai area and accepting two flats for his relatives in return.

He is also accused of illegally approving, as the then revenue minister, allotment of 40 per cent of the flats to civilians even as the society was originally meant for defence personnel.