Disproportionate assets case: SC to hear Mulayams petition

The Supreme Court will today hear the petition filed by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members, seeking review of the apex courts order directing the CBI to conduct preliminary inquiry into the disproportionate assets case.

New Delhi, May 14 : The Supreme Court will today hear the petition filed by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members, seeking review of the apex court's order directing the CBI to conduct preliminary inquiry into the disproportionate assets case.

The CBI has been roped in for the inquiry after the PIL filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi, a Uttar Pradesh resident, alleged that the wealth acquired by the Yadav's was through illegal means.

The Chief Minister's family has questioned the sanctity and maintainability of the PIL, which points fingers at the family, including Mulayam's MP son Akhilesh.

Chaturvedi's PIL also names Akhilesh's wife Dimple and Yadav's other son Pratik as beneficiaries of the alleged disproportionate assets acquired by the family between 2001 to 2005.

Petitioner Chaturvedi disclosed that he had met the Governor T.V. Rajeswar Rao on June 21, 2005 with a request to initiate action against Mulayam and his family but nothing happened.

On November 6, 2005, he presented a memorandum to the Union Home Minister, but it was also in vain. Therefore he had had to file the present petition.

Earlier, the apex court Judge A R Lakshmanan had withdrawn from the case on the grounds that an anonymous letter had been written to him containing defamatory content.

Justice Lakshmanan had remarked that since the matter has been disposed off, an interim application could not be entertained and the only remedy available with Mulayam was to file a petition seeking a review of the verdict. Yadav had challenged the credentials of the CBI for holding the probe against him and alleged that the public interest litigation (PIL) on which the apex court passed its directions was a proxy litigation, which is being fought on behalf of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

ANI