Court dismisses plea to drop Chavan's name owing to judicial

A special CBI court, which has dismissed CBI's application seeking to drop former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused in the Adarsh Housing Society scam case, has said it cannot pass any order as the matter was also pending before the Bombay High Court.
"Chavan has challenged the competency of CBI to investigate the (Adarsh) matter and it is pending before the HC. As a judicial discipline, the court cannot pass any order in respect of deletion of Chavan's name", said special CBI judge S G Dige in a three-page order given to CBI today.

After Governor K Sankaranarayanan had last month refused to sanction Chavan's prosecution on CBI's application, the premier investigative agency moved the court on January 15 for allowing it to drop the name of Chavan who has been chargesheeted, along with 12 others, in the case.
Judge Dige also said there was no provision under section 169 (release of accused when evidence is deficient) of CrPc for deletion of name of accused for want of sanction for Prevention of Corruption Act as it is a separate offence.
CBI had charge-sheeted Chavan and others in the case in July 2012 but the court is yet to take cognisance as a PIL, seeking a probe into benami flats in Adarsh Housing Society and use of laundered money, is pending before the high court.

A judicial commission of inquiry, set up by the state government, had indicted Chavan, former CMs Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushilkumar Shinde over "blatant violations" of statutory provisions in granting various clearances to the scam-tainted housing society.
The judicial panel's report had said "there was certainly a nexus between the acts of Chavan and benefits derived by his close relatives. The membership process clearly indicates that grant of requisite permission by Chavan was by way of quid pro quo.