The special CBI Court here on Wednesday deferred the hearing into the rupees 175 crore Taj Corridor case, in which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is an accused, till June 1.
Lucknow, May 23 : The special CBI Court here on Wednesday deferred the hearing into the rupees 175 crore Taj Corridor case, in which Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is an accused, till June 1.
Judge Rekha Dixit deferred the hearing on the grounds that one of the accused, former Uttar Pradesh Environment Principal Secretary R K Sharma, sought time to file a rejoinder on CBI's intervention application challenging a court order sanctioning prosecution against public servants. The CBI, who did not file sanction for prosecution of the six accused persons, said that they had not yet received the sanctions.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was directed by the court in February to produce the Governor's sanction for prosecution of the public servants - Mayawati and five other officials - accused in the case.
The CBI is awaiting the Governor's sanction to go ahead with the prosecution of Mayawati and five others, including former State Environment Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui, under Secretary Rajendra Prasad and Additional General Manager of NBCC Mahendra Sharma.
The CBI has been probing the case over the past three years, under direct monitoring of the Supreme Court. In November 2006, it set aside the CBI's status report seeking closure of the case.
The Taj Corridor case involves the decision to build a corridor around the heritage monument in disregard of the guidelines laid down by the Environment Ministry and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
ANI