A Delhi court Saturday dismissed a plea seeking registration of a case against Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan for “shielding” Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family in a disproportionate assets case.
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Talwant Singh dismissed the petition of Vishwanath Chaturvedi who had sought direction from the court to register an FIR to initiate a “fair and impartial probe” into all the offences chronicled in his complaint against the people, including Vahanvati.
Chaturvedi, in a petition filed Monday, alleged that Vahanvati entered into a criminal conspiracy with various people and issued a legal opinion in November 2008, recommending to the CBI to withdraw an illegal assets case against Mulayam Singh.
The complainant alleged that the CBI had found prima facie evidence against Mulayam Singh and approached the Supreme Court to seek directions on further probe.
“The purported legal opinion grants a clean chit to respondent (Mulayam Singh) by holding that the respondent has satisfactorily accounted for his assets and wealth,” the complainant said.
He alleged that Chavan, the then minister looking after the department of personnel and training, acted in conspiracy with the then solicitor general, Vahanvati, then law minister Bhardwaj and various other people.
“It was a carefully planned conspiracy hatched by various individuals and accused persons to save Yadav and his kith and kin from further investigation and criminal prosecution as a measure of a voluntary gift to Yadav for his key role in the trust vote held on July 22, 2008 (in parliament),” said the petition.
