Denial of sanction to prosecute doesn't mean ex-CM Ashok Chavan not an accused: CBI court

The special CBI court has rejected the prosecution’s plea for deleting Maharashtra’s ex-CM Ashok Chavan’s name from the list of accused in the Adarsh scam case. The court held that the Code of Criminal Procedure section, which the prosecution was referring to, nowhere mentions that if the governor refuses to grant sanction to prosecute the accused, his name should be deleted.

The court further maintained that Chavan had last year filed an application before the Bombay High Court, challenging CBI’s competency to investigate the case. Before the HC decides on his application, the CBI court cannot pass any order in the case, ruled judge S G Dighe.

The prosecution, last week had filed an application stating that Maharashtra governor had on December 17, 2013 declined to give sanction for action against Ashok Chavan. It said since there was no scope for collection of any new evidence in the case, the said order could not be reviewed.

As per the governor’s order’s as the CBI cannot prosecute Chavan under section 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), the other charges attached with the said section would automatically go off. Chavan faces allegations of granting favours to Adarsh society for which he received memberships for his close relatives.

The court said the prosecution had filed the application under the CrPc Act, while in the present case Chavan was chargesheeted under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court observed, “The PC Act slapped against the accused is a separate offence. More over there is no provision under section 169 Cr Pc for deletion of the name of the accused when there is a refusal of sanction.”