Mayawati trapped in Taj corridor

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday laid bare the government’s ‘Save Mayawati’ plan in the Taj Corridor case; quashed the CBI’s status report recommending the closure of the case; and okayed the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s prosecution.

The development is embarrassing for the UPA government as the court came down heavily on it and said power was not being exercised for achieving ethical and moral objectives. It suggested that there was a cynical plot to help the former chief minister who is embroiled in the Rs 175-crore corridor case.

The court tore into the advise of the government’s chief law officer, attorney general Milon Banerjee, and said his views were sought to kill the case. “When all members of the investigating team opined that it is a fit case for prosecution, it was nothing but a charade performance by the CBI director to seek the closure of the case,” the bench comprising Justice SB Sinha, Justice SH Kapadia and Justice DK Jain said.

The court also directed the CBI to file all evidence and documents collected in the case before the special judge for “appropriate proceedings against Ms Mayawati in accordance with law”. It’s a big blow to Ms Mayawati, who was expecting the Centre to bail her out.

The Supreme Court, which was not convinced with the AG’s opinion had asked the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to go through the case files. The CVC told the court that it was a fit case for the prosecution of Ms Mayawati. It had also said that chargesheets could be filed against Ms Mayawati, her then Cabinet colleague in charge of the environment ministry Naseemuddin Siddiqui and former environment secretary RK Sharma.

It was pointed out that the Rs 175-crore project to lay a corridor linking various heritage sites in Agra was undertaken without the mandatory environment clearance. As a matter of fact, this was in violation to the Supreme Court’s order banning construction activity around the Taj Mahal.

The CBI was in favour of filing chargesheet against Ms Mayawati. The investigating officer, the SP in charge of the probe, DIG, joint director and additional director had said that the prosecution proceedings should be cleared against Ms Mayawati.

The court said that in the face of this unanimity, the CBI director had no business to seek the advise of the AG. “As there was no difference of opinion in the investigating team on the issue of prosecution, there was no question of referring the matter to the AG.”

The court also came close to suggesting that changing political equations at the Centre had a lot to do with the CBI director approaching the AG and the latter giving a “Mayawati-friendly” advise.