Amidst the crucial Lok Sabha election, the issuance of notice by Supreme Court to the CBI in an over-a-decade-old disproportionate asset (DA) case against Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav could land the father-son duo in trouble.
The apex court on Monday directed the CBI to place before it the probe report in the DA case against former chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav.
Congress leader from UP, Vishwanath Chaturvedi, had filed the PIL (public interest litigation) in the apex court in 2005, seeking direction to the CBI to take appropriate action to prosecute Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav, and Mulayam’s other son Prateek Yadav, under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly acquiring assets more than the known sources of their incomes by misusing power.
Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of UP at that time.
In its order on March 1, 2007, the apex court had directed the CBI “to enquire into allegations” and to find out whether the plea with regard to disproportionate assets of SP leaders was “correct or not”.
Later in 2012, the court had dismissed the review petitions of Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh and Prateek against the order and directed the CBI to go ahead with the probe in the DA case.
It, however, allowed the review plea of Dimple Yadav and directed the CBI to drop the inquiry against her, maintaining that she was not holding any public office. The court also modified its March 1, 2007 order and instructed the CBI to file status report before the court and not to the government.
In his fresh plea, Chaturvedi said, “Despite the yawning gap between the complaint made, court’s directions and pendency of filing of a regular case in this matter, an unusually long period as already escaped without any action being taken on the matter for 11 long years.”
“The matter is still pending with the CBI for registration of a regular case, fair, impartial and immediate investigation leading to prosecution of the offenders,” the complaint said.
Till date, no FIR has been registered against the Yadavs and it has not only caused “some irremediable and irrecoverable damage to the whole case, but also raised serious questions of credibility and integrity of our probe agencies”, the plea said.
It further said, “The CBI is duty bound to register a regular case as mandated by the provisions of law and also report the FIR to the jurisdictional magistrate as mandatory and provided by procedure of law.”
Referring to the CBI’s earlier status report, the fresh plea said that the report indicated that disproportionate assets were possessed not only by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh and Prateek but also by Dimple Yadav.
