india

Updated: Mar 25, 2019 22:39 IST

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)’s response to a petition seeking the status of the agency’s probe into the alleged disproportionate assets of Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his sons, Akhilesh and Prateek.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta gave the CBI two weeks for the response. It brushed aside apprehensions of the Yadavs lawyer, CA Sundaram, that any remark of the judges related to the petition at this juncture would have a bearing on the national elections that begin on April 11.

“There was a status report in 2007. We would like to know what happened to it,’’ Gogoi told Sundaram, who contended the application was meant to politicise the issue.

Sundaram implored the court not to proceed with the matter on account of the polls for which the SP has aligned with the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh that has the most -- 80 -- Lok Sabha seats.

He said anything that the court said would be a headline in the media the next day.

The court’s direction to the CBI came on a fresh application of Congress leader Vishwanath Chaturvedi seeking a direction to the agency to submit a status report of the probe in the case.

Chaturvedi moved the top court in 2005 with a plea for a CBI probe against the three and Akhilesh’s wife, Dimple Yadav. He accused the family of corruption. In his 2005 petition, Chaturvedi cited income tax returns and other “reliable documents” of the Yadavs’ to allege that they possessed disproportionate assets.

On March 1, 2007, the top court directed the CBI to inquire into allegations and also find out whether the plea regarding the disproportionate assets was “correct or not”. A review plea against this order was dismissed in 2012.

The court later dropped Dimple Yadav’s name from the list of people to be investigated as she was not holding any public office then and therefore could not be subjected to any investigation.

imple Yadav became a Lok Sabha member in 2012 after her husband, Akhilesh, vacated his seat as he became the Uttar Pradesh chief minister.

In his fresh application, Chaturvedi said the CBI has not so far given any update on its investigation nor has it intimated to him about the filing of any final report. “An unusually long period has already escaped without any action being taken on the matter for 11 long years.”

Chaturvedi said no First Information Report has been filed till date in the matter. “This has not only caused irremediable and irrecoverable damage to the case but has also raised questions about the CBI’s credibility and integrity.”

The application claimed said the delay on the CBI’s part has “emboldened” the Yadavs to “unleash terror and intimidation to the informers and complainants”.

Commenting on the case, SP spokesperson Abdul Hafiz Gandhi said: “Lawyer from our side presented his argument in the case. The Congress leader filed this case and hence it’s a politically motivated petition”.