Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: In a major relief to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reopen a CBI probe in a nine-year-old disproportionate assets case against her.
The apex court, while pronouncing its verdict, refused to entertain a plea seeking review of its previous order quashing disproportionate assets case against Mayawati.
A bench of justices P Sathasivam and Dipak Misra, which had clarified that CBI is free to probe the BSP chief during an earlier hearing on the case, passed the order clarifying its own judgement.
The apex court bench said that its order on Mayawati was only in connection with the Taj Corridor case and the court did not go into other aspects.
Mayawati’s lawyer Satish Chandra Mishra said the Supreme Court refused to entertain the review petition and the DA case finally comes to a closure.
“Supreme Court in a detailed and lengthy judgement, reiterated its earlier decision and said that it did not find a single ground to entertain this review petition and the DA case which was illegally started by the CBI in 2003 finally comes to a closure,” he told media.
“The Court had held that the CBI had exceeded its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against Mayawati without any direction in the DA case for which they had no authority,” he added.
Mishra also said the Supreme Court dismissed the review petition filed by an intervenor Kamlesh Verma after hearing arguments at length.
Reacting to the verdict, BSP chief Mayawati said that she is extremely relieved and happy that the apex court has given her justice.
“In 2003, when the BJP was in power, it misused the CBI and I was troubled in the disproportionate asset case, and this issue has been going on since 2003, but I believed in the Supreme Court that it would give me justice,” she told media here today.
“But then, some people filed a review petition. Today, the Supreme Court has again given its verdict on this case and I have been given justice by the Supreme Court and I am very grateful for it,’ she added.
BSP supremo also said that she would have been happier if her mentor Kanshi Ram were alive to hear this verdict.
“I wish Kanshi Ram would have been alive to hear this verdict, I would have been very happy,” she said. Mayawati also expressed her gratitude to all her party workers for standing by her side during these difficult times.
While reserving its verdict on May 1, the bench had then said that the FIR in the case was quashed because the agency proceeded against her without properly understanding its orders which were confined to Taj Corridor case related to the release of Rs. 17 crore by UP government allegedly without sanction.
That judgement had not taken away CBI`s power to proceed against her in a separate disproportionate assets case, the court had said.
The review petition was filed by Kamlesh Verma who was an intervener in the case filed by Mayawati in the Supreme Court for quashing the assets case against her.
Senior advocate Shanti Bhushan, appearing for Verma, had pleaded with the court to pass order on review to bring accused to the book.
The Supreme Court had, on July 6, quashed the nine-year-long disproportionate assets case against Mayawati and had pulled up the CBI for exceeding its jurisdiction by lodging an FIR against her without any direction from it.
With PTI inputs
