Assets case: Akhilesh, Mulayam may land in deep trouble

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on an application from Congress leader Vishwanath Chaturvedi for a direction to file a status report on the probe conducted against Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, his sons Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav in the disproportionate assets case registered against them.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta sought the CBI response after the petitioner alleged that the CBI had not filed a status report in the matter though more than 11 years had passed when the apex court passed the order for registration of a case.   

In his application, Mr Chaturvedi said his main writ petition filed in 2005 sought a direction to the CBI to take appropriate action to prosecute Mulayam Singh and his family members for amassing assets more than the known source of their income by misusing their power of authority. The court in 2007 directed the CBI ‘to enquire into allegations and file a report whether they are correct or not (sic)’. The court directed the CBI to submit a report to the Union of India and on the receipt of such reports, the latter may take further steps depending upon the outcome of the preliminary enquiry into the assets of respondents.

It is stated that the CBI prepared the said status report after conducting a preliminary enquiry and examining the income tax returns of the four respondents from April 1, 1993 to March 31, 2005. Even on the basis of the apparent consideration paid for acquisition of properties by Mulayam Singh, the assets disproportionate to his known sources of income were found to be Rs 2,99,00,000. Further, if the assets of the entire family were taken into account, the assets disproportionate to the known sources of income were found to be Rs 9,22,72,000, the value of the assets being Rs 24 crore in 2013.

He said an unusually long period has already passed without any action being taken on the matter for 11 long years and the whole matter has been pending with the CBI for registration of a regular case.