Unfazed by criticism from various quarters, Adarsh scam-tainted former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said on Wednesday that his conscience was clear, the Adarsh issue is irreverent and there was no corruption in the whole thing.
Talking to mediapersons after filing the nomination to contest the lok Sabha polls from his home constituency of Nanded in Marathwada region, Chavan said: “My conscience is clear, I have done no wrong”.
Queried if the Congress had erred in nominating him as a candidate especially in the light of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi having anti-corruption a plank in the lok Sabha polls, Chavan said: “It is a very conscious decision. Do not rake up such issues… Where is the corruption in this (Adarsh) issue. let us not talk about issues which are irrelevant”.
Hitting out at the BJP-led Opposition for its criticism of the Congress to field him as a candidate from Nanded, Chavan said: “...they have no moral authority to talk on these issues. What about YeddyurappaIJ Can BJP clarify its stance on Yeddyurappa and the Reddy brothers involved in the mining issueIJ”.
On his having been charge-sheeted in the Adarsh scam case, Chavan said “Yes, but I have not been convicted. Also, I am not disqualified to contest the election. You see, there are rules, there is a legal provision. So nothing bars me from contesting any election. So the legal position is very clear.
Replying to a question, Chavan said: “Where is the corruptionIJ let us not bring Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi into this issue. How are they concerned here.. They are our leaders. The decision ( to field him a candidate) has been taken at the highest level, after a conscious call. I think everything is fine”.
His comments came on a Congress president Sonia Gandhi defended her party’s decision to give a lok Sabha ticket to him, saying he has not been “barred” by any law from contesting polls.
Asked how different his case from the CWG scam-tainted sitting MP Suresh Kalmadi who was denied ticket to re-contest from Pune, Chavan said: “I don’t want to comment on his case. The party has taken the decision and I will go by the party’s decision”.
Chavan, it may be recalled, had resigned as the chief minister on November 9, 2010, following the expose of the Adarsh society scam. His successor Prithviraj Chavan had appointed a two-member Commission of Inquiry – comprising retired judge of Bombay High Court J A Patil and retired chief secretary of Maharashtra P Subramanyam –-- to probe the scam. The Commission had indicted Chavan for giving permissions and clearances to the controversial Adarsh co-operative Housing society as quid pro quo.
The charge was that her he had allotted flats to his (now late) mother-in-law Bhagwati Manoharlal Sharma and two of his relatives Seema Vinod Sharma and Madanlal Milkiram Sharma in the 31-storey Adarsh building at Colaba in south Mumbai in lieu of the favours he had done to the controversial society.
Replying to a question, Chavan said:”You see, the party’s stand is very clear. There is no corruption issue involved in my case. It is only a media hype created by certain sections of media”.
On the ongoing litigation in the Adarsh scam case, Chavan said, “The matter is sub-judice. let us wait and watch. The legal provisions are very clear. I have not been convicted. The legal process will take its own course”.
To another question, Chavan said: “Ultimately, the stamp of approval will be given by the people of Nanded constituency, who will decide what is true and what is hype… When we talk about morality, I think the people of Nanded are more responsible to take a decision on this issue”.
Queried if winnability was the main criterion that prompted the Congress to field him, Chavan said, “I am not saying winnability is not an issue, but there are other factors...People of Nanded have stood by us and they are confident that I have done no wrong”
AN INSET TO GO WITH ABOVE ITEM
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE
Mumbai:In a development that brought some relief to former chief minister Ashok Chavan, the CBI on Wednesday moved the Bombay High Court against the lower court’s order rejecting its application to drop his name from the list of accused in the Adarsh housing society scam case.
Special Court Judge S G Dighe had on January 18 this year rejected the CBI’s plea for permission to to drop Chavan’s name from the list of 13 accused in the Adarsh scam case -- against whom the central investigating a charge sheet in the trial court on July 4, 2012.
In an application filed before the special court on January 15, Special Public Prosecutor Bharat Badami had urged the court to allow the CBI to drop Chavan’s name from the list of 13 accused on the basis of the Governor’s decision to refuse sanction the former chief minister’s prosecution – which the investigating agency had described was “non-appealable”.
In his order rejecting the CBI’s plea for sanction to prosecute Chavan in the Adarsh society scam case, the Governor had stated: “Having considered the matter from all angles, the entire papers and documents, I do not find that even a prima facie case is made out and hence the request of the CBI for sanction to prosecute under Section 197 of the CrPC is liable to be rejected and, therefore, I am hereby constrained to refuse the same”.“…. the CBI has not been able to collect/produce any evidence at all, leave aside the evidence that would prima-facie disclose even a grain of truth, in this regard. No prima facie case, therefore, exits for this allegation at all,” the Governor had pointed out.