MUMBAI, July 23: A special CBI court today adjourned till August 6 the arguments on taking cognisance of the central agency’s charge sheet in the Adarsh housing society scam and also on issuing process against the 13 accused, including former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.
The court adjourned the matter after both prosecution and defence lawyers pointed out that the Bombay High Court will hear on August 3 the issue of whether CBI had the jurisdiction to probe the matter.
Special CBI judge M V Kulkarni then adjourned the matter till August 6.
The court had today scheduled the hearing of CBI’s arguments on taking cognisance of the over 10,000-page charge sheet and on issuance of process (notices) to the accused.
On July 4, the CBI had filed a charge sheet in the matter against 13 people, including Chavan. The central agency had initiated a probe in the matter in November, 2010, after direction from the Ministry of Defence.
However, both the Adarsh society and Maharashtra government had recently filed affidavits in the Bombay High Court challenging CBI probe in the matter.
According to their affidavits, the land belonged to the state government and since it has not given consent to CBI for a probe, the central agency has no jurisdiction.
However, the Ministry of Defence had last week opposed this claim saying the ownership of land is still disputed.
The high court had allowed the Ministry of Defence to intervene in the PILs in the scam and asked it to file its response to the Maharashtra government’s stand that CBI cannot probe it, as neither the state government nor the court had handed over the case to central agency, as required by law.
The PILs in the Adarsh scam are seeking monitoring of the investigations by the high court and invoking provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act against those involved. (PTI)
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