The Supreme Court on Monday said it would like to know from the CBI whether a case has been registered against the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets by Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, his sons former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi gave the CBI two weeks to report back on whether “a case has been registered or not?”
The order came on a plea by Vishwanath Chaturvedi for a direction to the CBI to place its investigation report in the case.
“You said in 2007 in your report about prima facie registering a case. We would like to know whether a case has been registered or not,” Chief Justice Gogoi observed orally.
Mr. Chaturvedi has alleged that the CBI has ‘utterly’ failed in informing about the status of the case or whether a final report has been filed before the Magistrate or the apex court on the basis of two verdicts in March 2007 and December 2012.
“The CBI failed to update the status of the case and stage of the investigation as 11 long years have lapsed from writ judgment and six years lapsed from the review order,” Mr. Chaturvedi argued.
“The unusual delay in filing a regular case against the offenders has not only caused some irremediable and irrecoverable damage to the whole case, but also raised serious questions of credibility and integrity of our investigating agencies,” he contended.
Mr. Chaturvedi said the politicians in question have been “emboldened to unleash terror and intimidation to the informers/complainants.”
In December 2012, the court had directed the CBI to go ahead with the probe against the then SP chief and his then Chief Minister son, while dropping investigation against Dimple Yadav, wife of Mr. Akhilesh.
Mr. Chaturvedi has claimed that after payment of consideration, and acquisition of properties by Mr. Mulayam Singh, the assets disproportionate to his known sources of income were found to be ₹2.99 cr. Further, if the assets of the entire family were taken into account, the assets disproportionate to the known sources of income were found to be ₹9.22 cr., the value of the assets being ₹24 cr. in 2013.
