The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday told the Supreme Court that the allegation that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had kept a girl and her parents in illegal custody was false.
Additional Solicitor General, Harin Raval, appearing for the CBI, told a Bench of Justices B. S. Chauhan and Swtanter Kumar that the agency, as per the directions of the Allahabad High Court, conducted an enquiry, and found that the names of the three persons were non-existent. Its verification with various government authorities, including the postmaster, Nagar Panchayat officials and District Food and Civil Supplies inspectors, revealed that the three persons were non-existent and there was no such address as given in the complaint. Mr. Raval said the investigation and statements secured revealed that the habeas corpus petition filed by the former Samajwadi Party MLA from Madhya Pradesh, Kishore Samrite, was funded by some others. He said statements had been recorded to that effect, and produced the status report of the investigation, which was subsequently stayed by the Supreme Court.
Acting on an appeal from Mr. Samrite against the High Court order imposing Rs. 50 lakh in costs on him, the Supreme Court stayed the order in April last. The High Court had also directed a CBI probe against him, for filing a petition against the Mr. Gandhi. It passed the order, after the girl denied any such incident when she was produced in court.
In his appeal, Mr. Samrite argued that the order passed by the Division Bench of the High Court was illegal, without jurisdiction, and arbitrary. He pointed out that a petition pending before a singe judge was unilaterally transferred by the Division Bench to itself, and it passed the order, though it was only dealing with another petition filed by one Gajendra Pal Singh, who claimed to be a relative of the girl.
Senior counsel P. P. Rao, appearing for Mr. Gandhi, said the whole attempt was to tarnish the image of a young leader of the party. The petitioner had filed the petition based on website reports, which were false.
