New Delhi, January 12
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today got four weeks’ time from the Supreme Court to respond to the CBI claim that there was ample evidence to prosecute her in a disproportionate assets case registered against her five years ago.
Mayawati has filed a petition seeking quashing of the criminal proceedings against her in the case, alleging it was registered against her due to political reasons.
Uttar Pradesh’s Additional Advocate General Shail Kumar Dwivedi told a bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan that the matter should be deferred for hearing for four weeks so that he could file a counter to the affidavit filed by the CBI.
The CBI, which had registered a DA case against the BSP chief in 2003, alleged that the assets shown by her in the Akbarpur parliamentary constituency were worth over Rs 1 crore whereas the assets increased to over Rs 50 crore in her declaration papers submitted during the 2007 Assembly polls.
The agency had said that she had been questioned about the wealth over a period of three years to which she said it was due to the party worker’s donations, which included meagre sums of Rs 5 and Rs 10, on her birthday.
However, it contended that the reasoning by Mayawati was not plausible and that it was likely to file a chargesheet against her in the disproportionate assets case soon.
The agency refuted Mayawati’s allegation that the UPA government was using the probe to serve its political interests and it was aimed at “character assassination”.
The CBI had said it was solely guided by Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which mandates a probe agency to file a final report (chargesheet) before the magistrate concerned after completing the investigations into a criminal case.
— PTI
