Like 2G, Adarsh was never a scam: Sanjay Nirupam on HC order

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Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam today claimed that like 2G, Adarsh was never a scam and alleged that it was a ploy of the BJP to malign his party.

The Bombay High Court today quashed and set aside the sanction granted to the CBI by Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao to prosecute senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh housing society scam.

"The earlier state governor had rejected sanction to prosecute former chief minister Ashok Chavan in the Adarsh case. But the BJP government, in a politically motivated move, got the present governor to give a sanction again, which the HC has set aside today," Nirupam told PTI.

"Like 2G, Adarsh was never a scam. The plot belonged to the Maharashtra government. It was never reserved for defence or martyr's kin. It was just a normal housing project," he said.

The BJP led a "sinister campaign" to malign the Congress and after 2G verdict yesterday, the false propaganda has been exposed, Nirupam alleged.

Former telecom minister and DMK leader A Raja, Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi and others were yesterday acquitted in the politically-sensitive 2G spectrum allocation cases by a special court which held that the prosecution miserably failed to prove the scam involving corruption and money laundering.

Chavan, currently the president of Maharashtra unit of the Congress, had served as the chief minister between December 2008 and November 2010 before he was asked to step down on charges of corruption in the Adarsh scam.

Chavan is among 14 retired and serving defence personnel, bureaucrats and politicians named as accused in the scam.

The CBI has accused Chavan of approving additional floor space index (FSI) for the Adarsh society in posh south Mumbai, and accepting two flats for his relatives in return when he was the chief minister.

He is also accused of illegally approving, as revenue minister earlier, allotment of 40 per cent of flats to civilians even though the society was originally meant for defence personnel.

The CBI had earlier told the HC that if Chavan's petition is allowed, it would amount to his acquittal, which would render the entire probe exercise futile.