Hearing a public interest litigation filed by a social activist Sanjay Tiwari, a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Roshan Dalvi asked Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik to obtain necessary sanction from the State Government to prosecute Singh for criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“The immovable properties of Kripashankar shall be attached. We do not want to pass any directions regarding the bank accounts of the respondents as it is alleged that the money might have been washed out,” the division bench of HC said.
In a twin fallout of the High Court order, the Congress high command post-haste accepted Singh’s resignation from Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) president’s post. Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that his party and Government were accepting “whatever ruling that the court has given” and that he would act in accordance with the court directive.
Chavan’s statement was a clear indicator of the State Government’s readiness to accord sanction to Singh’s prosecution in the “disproportionate” assets’ case. On his part, Singh chose not to comment on the order, saying that he had not seen it.
Earlier, in their significant directive to the police, the judges said: “The PIL shall be treated as FIR and the report submitted by the State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in March 2011 showing Kripashankar’s income and expenditure shall be treated as investigation,” the judges said, as they rejected a plea by Singh’s lawyer seeking a stay on the order.
The judges also directed Patnaik to gather documentary evidence on all movable and immovable properties of Singh and his family, including his wife Malti Devi, son Narendra Mohan Singh and daughter-in-law Ankita, thus indicating that they might also be prosecuted for abetting the crime.
While rejecting Singh’s plea for a stay on its order, the HC bench asked the city Police Commission to file a compliance report on April 19.
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