Take CBI off my back, Mulayam urges SC

NEW DELHI: UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday moved the supreme court seeking a stay on the CBI investigation against him and his family members for allegedly possessing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Alleging a UPA gameplan to fix him before the coming assembly elections, Mulayam in an application sought stay on such inquiry till the completion of the elections in the state.

“The UPA at the centre taking advantage of this honourable court order, is in a tearing hurry to fix the applicants (Mulayam and his family members) by hook and crook in order to win the ensuring assembly elections which are scheduled to the held in six phases” said the application.

To achieve this, the centre is pressurising the CBI to investigate and submit a biased report to it, alleged Mulayam. Questioning the credentials of CBI for holding the probe against him, Mulayam alleged that the PIL on which the apex court passed its directions was a “proxy litigation” fought on behalf of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

While seeking modification of the March 1 judgement and stay on the operation of the direction for CBI inquiry till May 31, Yadav alleged that the agency “is no longer independent and often acts only to serve the interests of the party in power at Centre”. The court had directed CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the assets of the chief minister, his MP son Akhilesh, daughter-in-law Dimple and another son Pratik on a PIL filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi.

In the application which is likely to be mentioned by advocate Pravin Parekh on Tuesday for early hearing, Yadav expressed apprehensions that the investigation by the agency may not be fair and referred to the on-going political battle between the Samajwadi Party and Congress.

He cited the incident of tapping of his party colleague Amar Singh’s telephone, which he alleged was done at the behest of the ruling party at the Centre. However, investigations into the phone tapping controversy has pointed to the involvement of private individuals in it.

The chief minister, who sought handing over of the probe to a retired judge of the apex court or the high court referred to the case relating to extradition, bail and freezing of foreign bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, an accused in the Bofors pay off case and the ‘clean chit’ given by it to BSP chief Mayawati in the Taj corridor Scam.

In the application, Yadav alleged that CBI was going slow on the investigation of the citizenship of Mani Kumar Subba, the controversial Congress MP from Assam, and referred to the role of the agency in Jain hawala case and fodder scam which came for sharp criticism from the apex court.

The Samajwadi chief, who contended that the PIL was politically motivated, said the income tax department, which was seized of the matter may be directed to proceed with the inquiry into the allegation and file its report before the apex court. The court had asked the investigation agency to inquire into the allegations levelled in a PIL and submit its report to the centre which can take further steps depending on the probe outcome.

The directions had come on the PIL alleging the Samajwadi Party chief and his kith and kin amassed wealth by illegal means and by misusing their power and authority.