CBI Found No Illegality, Have Faced Enough Embarrassment: Mulayam Tells SC in Assets Case

New Delhi: Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has urged the Supreme Court to keep its hands off the disproportionate assets case, registered by the CBI against Yadav and his sons Akhilesh and Prateek on the orders of the court.

Yadav, submitting his affidavit, has told the top court that the latest plea, requiring the premier investigating agency to put forth its progress report in the matter, is politically motivated and is timed in the wake of the impending Lok Sabha election.

He said that petitioner-advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi was his political adversary and had filed the new application only because the Yadavs were contesting the upcoming general election.

According to Yadav, there was no need for the CBI to submit its report in the apex court since there was no such direction to the agency in various orders between 2007 and 2012 for placing the investigative report before the court.

The final direction in the case pertained to ordering a preliminary inquiry by the CBI and then the matter stood disposed off in the Supreme Court, the affidavit said.

Similarly, Yadav said, the court could not start monitoring the investigation now.

Besides, Yadav added that the court order was limited to registration of a preliminary inquiry and that this order could not be construed as a directive to the CBI to file a final chargesheet against Yadav and his sons for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

The SP supremo maintained that pursuant to the court order, the CBI investigated the matter over a period of two years and no illegality came to light.

The income tax department had also examined the assets of the Yadavs and no adverse orders were passed, said veteran politician.

"On account of the said proceedings, the answering respondent has been suffering and facing completely uncalled-for embarrassment in the public sphere. The respondent has been subjected to the said investigation only since he and his family members have been in public life and have held high offices both at the state and central level," the affidavit said.

According to his information, Yadav said the CBI had closed its inquiry into the matter and hence, there was no need for the court to now seek a report from the agency.

Notably, the CBI in this matter, is yet to submit its response even as Yadav had opposed Chaturvedi's request to seek the progress report from the agency.

The disproportionate assets case against the Yadavs has seen many twists and turns.

At one point, the case was first dismissed, then a CBI probe was ordered and finally in review, the Supreme Court had let off Akhilesh’s wife Dimple Yadav from the scrutiny while giving its go-ahead for a probe against the three men.

In his fresh application, Chaturvedi said the CBI had not, so far, given any update on its investigation nor did it intimate 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 (FIR) had been filed till date in the matter.

When this case was taken up last month, Yadavs' lawyer, CA Sundaram had requested the bench to keep the notice in suspension, staring that any remark of the judges related to the petition at this juncture would have a bearing on the national election slated to begin on April 11.

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

However, the bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, turned down this plea, and issued notices.