Adding to former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan’s woes, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Friday vehemently opposed his petition seeking the quashing of an FIR lodged against him by CBI in the Adarsh housing society scam, saying that the apex investigating agency had the jurisdiction to probe the case.
less than a fortnight after the CBI told the High Court that it was investigating the case on the basis of a complaint lodged with it by the MoD, the Ministry filed an intervention application before a HC division bench of justices PV Hardas and AR Joshi opposing Chavan’s plea for the annulment of the FIR against him in the Adarsh scam case.
In its application, the MoD contested Chavan’s stand that CBI had no jurisdiction to probe the Adarsh scam on the ground that neither the Maharashtra Government nor the High Court had handed over the investigations in the case to it. The MoD also reiterated that it was on the basis of a complaint filed by it that the CBI had registered a preliminary inquiry in the case.
This is the second occasion when the MoD has defended the CBI’s jurisdiction to probe the Adarsh scam case. Earlier in an affidavit filed before the High Court on July 18, 2012, the MoD had opposed a stand taken by the Maharashtra Government that the CBI had no jurisdiction to probe the Adarsh scam in view of the fact that the society’s land belonged to it and that neither the DF dispensation nor the Bombay High Court had handed over the case to apex investigating agency.
Similarly, the MoD had picked holes in the preliminary report of a two-member State-appointed inquiry commission which had held that the land — on which the 31-storey Adarsh building has been constructed at Colaba in south Mumbai — belonged to the Maharashtra Government. The MoD had then termed the commission’s report as “completely flawed” and “patently incorrect” in its legal interpretation.
Simultaneously, public interest litigant Mahendra Singh, who had earlier filed a petition seeking High Court to monitor the CBI probe, also filed an application on Friday opposing Chavan’s petition. like MoD, Singh also claimed that CBI had the power and jurisdiction to probe the Adarsh scam case.
On his part, Chavan’s senior counsel Amit Desai opposed the intervention applications of both MoD and Singh.
The HC division bench adjourned the matter for April 22, 2013, when it would hear arguments on whether the MoD and Singh should be allowed to intervene in the petition filed by Chavan.
Chavan faces the allegation of allotting flats to his (now late) mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma, his sister-in-law Seema Vinod Sharma and father-in-law’s brother Madanlal Sharma in the 31-storey Adarsh building at Colaba in south Mumbai in lieu of the favours he had done to the controversial society.
In the chargesheet against him and 12 others in the Adarsh scam on July 4, 2012, the CBI formally charged Chavan with having conspired with three prime scam accused, that he, in his capacity as the Revenue Minister in year 2000, had “proposed” to the society’s managing committee to induct civilians as members in the Adarsh building with the “ulterior motive” of facilitating flat allotments to his relatives.