File photo of Ashok Chavan
Former Maharashtra Chief minister Ashok Chavan, who is facing prosecution in the multi-crore Adarsh scam for conspiracy and cheating, has got a temporary reprieve. Today, the Bombay High Court said Mr Chavan cannot be brought to trial till it reaches a decision on an appeal by the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, regarding dropping his name from the chargesheet.
The agency, which investigated the case, had moved high court after a trial judge turned down its plea to remove Mr Chavan's name from the chargesheet. The removal had become necessary since Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayan had refused to grant sanction to prosecute Chavan.
Mr Chavan is among the 13 men named in the first chargesheet filed by the CBI. The high court clarified that the proceedings against the other 12 accused are on. The agency had concluded its investigations in June with the filing of a second chargesheet.
The Adarsh Housing Society is a 31-story building in South Mumbai's Colaba. The apartments were intended for war veterans and widows, but were allegedly grabbed by politicians, defence officers and bureaucrats.
A report submitted by the Adarsh Enquiry Commission, formed by the Maharashtra government in 2011, had squarely blamed politicians and bureaucrats for the scam.
"Adarsh is not a saga of ideal cooperation but a shameless tale of blatant violations of statutory provisions, rules and regulations. It reflects greed, nepotism and favoritism on part of some people," the report had said.