Mulayam Singh Yadav disproportionate asset case: SC asks CBI to file reply

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the CBI to file a reply to a petition seeking to know the status of probe into SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family's disproportionate assets.

The court gave CBI four weeks to file status of the probe. The matter is expected to be heard in July.

Mulayam had complained to the top court that petition filed on election eve was "politically motivated".

Yadav, who filed his affidavit in response to the notice issued to him on March 25, said Congress leader and activist Vishwanath Chaturvedi filed a fresh plea for extraneous reasons and with an objective to gain political mileage "just at the time and eve of the 2019 General Elections with mala fide reasons".

Chaturvedi has sought a direction to the CBI to place the status report on probe either before the apex court or before a magisterial court in the assets case against the three SP leaders — Yadav and his two sons, Akhilesh, also a former chief minister, and Prateek.

"The petition is not bona fide and has been filed for extraneous reasons and considerations to malign the reputation of Yadav and his family particularly when the petitioner is aware that respondents would be contesting in the upcoming general elections," the affidavit claimed.

The petitioner is associated and affiliated to a political adversary and he himself contested assembly election in the past and lost, it added.

Yadav said the petition against him and his family was filed in 2005 and the CBI and the Income Tax Authorities did not find anything adverse.

He said even after a detailed enquiry, spread over the period of about two years, no case was found by the CBI against him or his son Akhilesh and daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav.