Cong defends Chavan, says BJP has history of targeting its

Congress today alleged the NDA government has a history of targeting its leaders and BJP was holding CBI "captive" as it defended Ashok Chavan following reports that the agency has again approached the Maharashtra Governor seeking sanction to prosecute him in the Adarsh Housing scam case.
"Now CBI is not a caged parrot. It is now captive of BJP," Congress' communication department chief Randeep Surjewala told reporters as the party strongly backed Chavan, who had to resign as chief minister after the scam surfaced in 2010.
Alleging that CBI is acting under "pressure from its political bosses", he said there is a history of the BJP government targeting Congress leaders and Chief Ministers ever since it came to power.

"It shows the manner in which CBI is being used against Congress leaders. Congress leaders like Shankersinh Vaghela, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Virbhadra Singh and P Chidambaram have already been targetted. Now other Opposition leaders are also being victimised," he said.
Chavan, who is now the Maharashtra PCC chief, said he was being "targetted" as he tried to expose the "misdeeds" of the BJP-led government in the state.
"This is cent percent political vendetta. Under a conspiracy, Congress leaders across the country are being targetted. There is no merit in these allegations. When the previous Governor has refused sanction for prosecution after examining the matter, why all of a sudden CBI again wants to go ahead with it.

"This shows CBI is under pressure from political bosses. This shows CBI is working under pressure from BJP. I am being targetted because I raised issues against the government including that of farmers' suicide, price rise and others," Chavan said.
CBI had approached Governor Vidyasagar Rao after it got "fresh evidence" against Chavan in the case.
In December 2013, the then Governor K Sankaranarayan had refused sanction to CBI to prosecute Chavan in the Adarsh housing scam, leaving the agency with no choice but to close the case against him.