A Division Bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday recused itself from hearing a petition filed by activist Praveen Wategaonkar, seeking a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to produce evidence that promoted the agency to give clean chit to Maharashtra’s former Chief Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the Adarsh society scam case in September, 2013. “Not before us,” Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi observed, when the petition came up before a sitting in a division Bench comprising her and Justice PV Hardas,
The petition, filed by Wategaonkar, was tagged on to another petition that had sought to make Shinde as an accused in the Adarsh society scam case. The HC Bench recused itself from both the petitions filed by Praveen Wategaonkar, an activist. Friday’s was the second occasion when a HC Bench had refused hear the petition filed by Wategaonkar. In June last year, another HC bench of Justices VM Kanade and PD Kode, had recused itself from hearing the matter.
After the HC Bench comprising Justices Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi and PV Hardas recused itself to hear his petition, Watgaonkar told mediapersons outside the High Court that he would move another HC Bench for hearing both his petitions. Wategaonkar had moved the High Court in July 2013, seeking to make Shinde as an accused. However, responding to Wategaonkar’s petition, the CBI stated in an affidavit filed before the high court on September 19, 2013, that in the light of the facts and circumstances that had come to light in its probe, the CBI stated that the CBI did not see any merit in the allegations or prayer made by the petitioner against Shinde that warranted indulgence of the court.
“….the CBI does not feel it legally necessary to name Sushil Kumar Shinde as an accused person in the ongoing investigation.. The CBI does not see any merit in the allegations or prayer made by the applicant, which warrant indulgence of the Hon’able court,” CBI’s investigating officer I K Babu stated in his affidavit, as he urged the court to dismiss the petitioner’s application.
In his petition, Wategaonkar has urged the court to direct the CBI to produce all the documents/evidence that led them to suspect the role of Shinde in the Adarsh scam case, the evidence that the agency collected during the course of its investigations and the material that prompted the agency to draw an inference that the evidence against the former chief minister is “deficient or insufficient”.
Quoting the findings of the a two-member commission, headed by retired Justice J A Patil, that probed the alleged irregularities in the scam, Wategaonkar said Commission had stated on page number 660 that Shinde had “failed to pay due attention to the suggestion made by the Finance Department. The least that we can say is that the entire issue smacks of undue haste and desire to bestow benefit to the society”.
Apart from furnishing the relevant extracts of the J A Commission’s report, the petitioner also drew the attention of the court to the “suggestions and remarks made by the Finance Department in detail in my Criminal Application about which the Commission states Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde “failed to pay due attention to” and acted with a “desire to bestow benefit to the society”.
Wategaonkar charged that Shinde, the then chief minister, had a vested interest in allotment of land to Adarsh Society. Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde had a personal interest in the membership of late Major Narayan Khankhoge in Adarsh Society. “Accused late K l Gidwani has confirmed this interest of Shinde in his deposition before Justice J.A.Patil Commission and I have brought out the same on page no 5 of the application and a copy of the deposition is annexed,” the petitioner stated. Wategaonkar, in his petition, urged the high court to direct the CBI to file an FIR against Shinde in the Adarsh Society Case.