NEW DELHI: The CBI finds itself in a fix after a court rejected its closure report on the disproportionate assets case against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi ’s close aide Vincent George .

The CBI had registered the DA case against George on March 21, 2001 but over the next decade and more, it failed to verify his claim that he had acquired land and property through large cash gifts from his relatives abroad. George has now been asked to appear in court as an accused.

In the July 19 order, special CBI judge J P S Malik said, “Final report filed by CBI is not accepted. Further, it is held that sufficient material is available on record for proceeding against Vincent George (the suspect) for the offence. Accused Vincent George be summoned for offence punishable Under Section 13(1)(e) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for August 30.”

During investigation, CBI had found several accounts and fixed deposits in the name of George and his wife, apart from Rs 1.5 crore in his bank accounts. CBI had claimed that George’s deposits increased mainly after 1990. The agency said purchase of assets was facilitated by huge cash gifts from abroad, which were earlier suspected to be hawala remittances.

George had claimed that the cash deposits were ‘gifts’ and the rest were ‘business transactions’ conducted by his wife’s two firms. CBI initially did not find these business transactions to be genuine but later said it had no evidence.

The agency had sent a letter rogatory to the US in 2002 but no reply was received.

An FIR was registered against George in 2001 in which he was alleged to have been in possession of disproportionate assets from November 1984 to December 1990. It was alleged that while holding the office of private secretary to former PM and later leader of opposition Rajiv Gandhi, he acquired assets in the name of his wife, children and close relatives which were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The CBI had alleged that George amassed huge wealth after 1990 which included commercial and residential property in posh south Delhi areas, properties in Bangalore, Chennai, Kerala and agriculture land outside Delhi besides Rs 1.5 crore in bank accounts.

In May this year, the agency, however, filed a lengthy closure report saying “the allegations of FIR has not been substantiated and it is, therefore, prayed that final report for closure of this case may be accepted and the documents seized/collected during the investigation be returned to persons concerned”.

The closure report detailed the various positions held by George from 1975 to 1977 when he was an assistant in the AICC following which he was deputed as former PM Indira Gandhi’s personal staff in 1980. After her assassination in 1984, he was associated with Rajiv Gandhi in different capacities. It said investigation showed that foreign remittances which were included in the category of income of George and his family members came from the US sent by other family members as financial help.

