SC seeks CBI's response in disproportionate assets case against Mulayam, Akhilesh

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea seeking a direction to the agency to provide a status report in a case of disproportionate assets against Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav.

A division bench presided by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and also comprising Justice Deepak Gupta, directed CBI to file a reply within two weeks.

It was hearing a plea filed by advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi.

Chaturvedi's petition has sought a direction to CBI to place before the top court or jurisdictional magistrate the status report of the investigation carried out in connection with the case.

The petition has said that the agency has "utterly failed" to intimate either the apex court or report to the jurisdictional magistrate in respect of the probe done and its status.

Mulayam Singh Yadav had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets worth over Rs 100 crore during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh between 1999 and 2005.

CBI has taken a long time to complete the preliminary enquiry in the matter which has been probed since 2007, the plea filed in February has said.

"In the judgment delivered by this court on December 13, 2012 in review petitions, this court had left it completely to CBI how the enquiry is to be proceeded with. This court has gone so far as to hold that CBI is an independent agency and is not bound to share the reports with the Union of India. Almost six years have lapsed since the review order and 11 long years have lapsed since the writ order...," it has contended.

In 2005, Chaturvedi had filed a plea in the apex court seeking a CBI probe against Mulayam Singh Yadav, his sons Akhilesh and Prateek Yadav and daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly acquiring assets more than their known sources of income by misusing their power of authority.