The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday told the Supreme Court that it had closed its preliminary inquiry in the disproportionate assets case against Samajwadi Party leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav in 2013, PTI reported.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi then asked the CBI to file a written affidavit in four weeks and explain its further course of action, said Hindustan Times.
The CBI’s response came after the Supreme Court, on March 25, asked the investigative agency to submit in two weeks a status report on the 2007 case against the Samajwadi Party chief and his sons Akhilesh and Prateek Yadav. The court was hearing a fresh plea filed by Congress leader Vishawanath Chaturvedi seeking the status of probe and contending that no action has been taken in the case over 11 years. He alleged that a first information report has not been registered against the Yadavs, raising “questions of credibility and integrity of our investigating agencies”.
Mulayam Yadav had filed an affidavit in court on Thursday saying that the petition was politically motivated as it was filed close to the Lok Sabha polls. Mulayam Yadav is contesting the ongoing General Elections from Mainpuri and Akhilesh Yadav from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.
The disproportionate assets case dates back to 2005, when Chaturvedi filed a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court asking it to order a CBI inquiry against the the Yadav patriarch, his two sons and Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav, under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Chaturvedi alleged that they had acquired assets disproportionate to their known source of income, amounting to Rs 100 crore, between 1999 and 2005. Mulayam Singh was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2003 to 2007.
The court, in 2007, directed the CBI to probe the allegations. In 2012, while dismissing a review plea by the Yadavs against the verdict, asked the CBI to drop the inquiry against Dimple Yadav saying that she was not holding public office.
In 2016, The Indian Express reported that though the CBI had said it was closing the case for lack of evidence, it was yet to file a status report before the Supreme Court.
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