CBI clean chit to Maya, after Mulayam
Dr Shakti Kumar Pandey from Lucknow
Congress seems to be involved in what we call noora-kushti (fake wrestling) with Mayawati and Mulayam. Both are being condemned by the Congress Party while the Congress-led union government shielding them. Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party has been supporting the Congress-led government at the Centre and got favour in return. The case against him was withdrawn by the CBI in DA case. And now it is the turn of Mayawati. She is also a gainer, having the support of the Congress-led government. She is being criticised by its ‘Yuvraj’ Rahul for exploiting dalit movement in her selfish interests, while the Congress ‘parrot’ CBI gives her a clean chit in the disproportionate assets case. Saying that Mayawati is a beneficiary of the Dalit movement, Rahul Gandhi said there is no new Dalit leadership emerging now.
CBI has withdrawn the disproportionate assets (DA) case against BSP supremo Mayawati after receiving legal opinion. CBI sources said the Apex Court had quashed the agency’s FIR in connection with alleged disproportionate assets of the BSP leader last year but the matter was in a limbo after an intervention application was filed by a private person. The Supreme Court had on August 8, this year dismissed the intervention application, paving the way for the closure of the DA case against Mayawati, they said.
The sources said after getting a certified copy of the latest order, the agency had sought legal opinion on the orders of the Apex Court on the issue. They said legal experts were of the view that the agency should close the probe in the case. The experts felt that if anyone wants a probe, he can approach an appropriate court to get a suitable order with which CBI would comply, they said.
On August 8, the Apex Court had dismissed a petition filed by Uttar Pradesh resident Kamlesh Verma who was an intervener in the case filed by Mayawati for quashing the DA case against her. While reserving its verdict on May 1, the bench had said that the FIR in the DA case was quashed because CBI proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to the Taj Corridor case. However, it had said that the judgement had not taken away CBI’s power to proceed against her in a separate DA case.
The Supreme Court had on July 6, last year quashed the nine-year-long disproportionate assets case against the BSP leader and had pulled up CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against her without any direction from it. The court had said the DA case against Mayawati was “unwarranted” and that the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to the Taj Corridor case relating to the release of Rs 17 crore by the UP Government allegedly without sanction.
On the other hand, the UP Government has started “reviewing” the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) projects completed during Mayawati’s regime. In case financial anomalies are found, the projects will be handed over to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to ascertain the extent of financial bungling committed by the previous government in the Centre’s scheme.
On August 16, the government had issued an order saying the district magistrates should review thoroughly the 100-odd BRGF projects once again before handing over the probe to the EOW. Though the review was to be done in a month’s time, the officials are still mid-way in the probe. Sources in the Panchayati Raj department said the delay is because of the huge number of projects to be reviewed. The State Government had ordered a departmental probe into BRGF almost immediately after coming to power last year. The government’s move was propelled by numerous public complaints regarding BRGF projects in the state.
The departmental probe found the projects sub-standard. At some places, works were taken up even though they were not required. After this, government not only stalled the BRGF work in the state but also decided to hand over the probe to EOW. But, before that it set up a committee to identify the projects where funds were misappropriated. Out of the 20,000 BRGF projects completed in Mayawati’s regime, the committee identified 101 projects as sub-standard.
Based on the committee’s report, the government ordered for a thorough review of the 101 projects once again before handing over the probe to EOW. The BRGF scheme is meant to bridge infrastructural gaps in 34 districts identified as ‘backward’. It started in 2008-09 in the state. Till 2011-12, the state got more than Rs 2,300 (2312.02) crore under BRGF against which Rs 1900 (1900.89) crore was utilised during the BSP rule to complete 22,000 projects.
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