BackCBI is at liberty to probe case against Mayawati: SC
SC said its order in the disproportionate assets case did not bar the CBI from going ahead with the probe
Premium(Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times)
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is at liberty to probe the disproportionate assets case against the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday while issuing notices to the Centre, the CBI and the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister on a plea to clarify its verdict quashing the disproportionate assets case against her.
“We never said that CBI has no power to investigate. It can do so, but has to get sanction from the state government," the court said, adding that its order was not to protect anyone.
A two-judge bench sought the responses of Mayawati and others and made it clear that it will only clarify its 6 July verdict, quashing the nine-year-old disproportionate assets case against Mayawati, on a review petition filed in the case.
The bench agreed to do so after it was pleaded that the probe in the case has come to an end in the light of its verdict even though the CBI has got sufficient evidence against her.
The bench said that it had “scanned" and “surveyed" all the previous orders passed by the apex court and came to conclusion that there was no direction for the probe in this case and the FIR in the case was quashed. At the same time, the bench also mentioned that its order did not bar the agency from going ahead with the probe in the case after getting appropriate sanction.
In a relief to Mayawati, the Supreme Court had on 6 July quashed the disproportionate assets case against her and had pulled up the CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against her without any direction from it.
The apex court had said the disproportionate assets case against Mayawati was “unwarranted" and the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to Taj Corridor case relating to the release of ₹ 17 crore by the UP government allegedly without sanction.
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