New Delhi: There is “sufficient” evidence to prosecute Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for allegedly having wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income, the Central Bureau of Investigation has told the Supreme Court.
The CBI said this in an affidavit before the court on Thursday, saying it would shortly file a charge-sheet in a disproportionate assets case filed against Mayawati in 2003. The affidavit rejected Mayawati's allegation that the UPA government was using the CBI to harass her and the probe was aimed at "character assassination."
The CBI filed an FIR against Mayawati on October 5, 2003 after the Supreme Court ordered it to investigate the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam.
Mayawati, who is chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party, claimed the FIR was illegal and the CBI had misinterpreted the Supreme Court’s order which had only directed investigation into the Taj Corridor case.
The Centre had earlier told the Supreme Court the CBI’s probe could have been concluded by 2006 but was delayed because Mayawati was making several representations, including to the Prime Minister.
"They (Mayawati and others) are scared what is coming out in public domain," the Centre had said on May 15 hearing. However, Mayawati's counsel had contended that the Centre was pressing for her prosecution as "it was scared in view of the 2009 general elections."
The BSP supremo has contended in the petition that "lodging the FIR and investigating into her assets is beyond the purview of Taj Heritage Corridor case and is a direct onslaught on her fundamental rights."
Keeping the sword of investigation hanging has seriously impaired her political journey, she had said. "The premier investigation agency has unfortunately been used as a tool by the Central Government by lodging the illegal FIR so as to harass her and proceeding of which are creating obstruction in smooth running of the government in the state," she said in the petition.
"The present case is a textbook example of the over-reach by an agency under control of the Union Government, giving rise to reasonable apprehension of an attempt to create a level to try to secure political ends by an abuse of legal system.
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