Two days after UP chief minister Mayawati alleged that the Centre was using a six-year-old corruption case to ?harass? her, the attorney general of India on Friday appeared in person before the Supreme Court and sought time to ?consider? her view.
In her affidavit to the Supreme Court on April 21, Mayawati had alleged that the CBI probe into a disproportionate assets case was ?illegal? and done under ?political pressure?.
?We will need to consider the case in view of the representations made,? attorney general GE Vahanvati, appearing for the CBI, told the Bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justices A K Ganguly and BS Chauhan.
The BSP chief had described herself as an ?unmarried lady living alone having my own income? and accused the CBI of adopting ?different yardsticks? in the investigation into her case and that of two other leaders, Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
?It is really unfortunate that for no reason whatsoever, unless the intention is to continue to harass and defame me by prolonging the CBI proceedings for an indefinite period without any justification, whatsoever, I am being discriminated in a hostile manner vis-?-vis Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav and Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav. The CBI is taking different yardsticks to look into my case vis-?-vis the case of the above said two leaders,? Mayawati said.
These words, part of her written representation addressed to the CBI director on April 20, were reproduced verbatim in the affidavit.
She pointed out how the CBI, on the basis of legal advice, decided not to appeal against a Patna special judge?s order that no case of disproportionate assets can be made out against the RJD chief as the I-T authorities had already declared his gifts as genuine. Though the Bihar government came in appeal, the Supreme Court finally gave Lalu Prasad the clean chit on April 1.
She also drew attention to the legal opinion tendered by the solicitor general to the CBI in a corruption case against Mulayam Singh Yadav, where it was decided that ?income and assets of the family members cannot be clubbed? with his income.
?My case is much stronger. CBI officers have themselves repeatedly held that they have not been able to get even a single evidence in their hands which may remotely connect the income and assets of my family members with me,? she wrote in her April 20 letter to the CBI chief.
The CBI had started investigations on Mayawati?s alleged disproportionate assets on October 5, 2003 following a Supreme Court order to probe the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scandal.
?No case of disproportionate assets is made out on account of the fact that each and every paisa found in my accounts has been held and found to be genuine and bonafide receipt in the form of gift or otherwise in my hand,? Mayawati said.
Besides, she said the ?entire investigation proceedings of the CBI are without jurisdiction? as the commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has already in two different orders, on April 5 and April 19, declared her ?gifts to be totally genuine with legal receipts?.
?Now after all the reassessments having been done by the Income Tax authorities, the entire gifts amounting to a total of Rs 2,77,98,300 received between year 1990-2000 to 2004-05 have been duly accepted as genuine gifts,? she had said.
