UP govt moves SC against CBI probe into Yadav Singh case

NEW DELHI: A day after the CBI raided the premises of Noida Authority’s suspended chief engineer Yadav Singh, the Akhilesh Yadav government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the inquiry against its officer by the central prosecuting agency.

Accusing the NDA government at the Centre of using the CBI for political vendetta, the UP government said the July 16 Allahabad high court order directing the probe came only after a joint-secretary level officer of the Central government asked for it.

The senior bureaucrat, also a member secretary of the SIT constituted by the Supreme Court to tackle black money stashed in foreign bank accounts, had requested the high court to let CBI investigate Singh’s case as it was related to the task entrusted to it by the apex court.

“It is not unknown that many a time the CBI has been used to politicise a general criminal case to further political vendetta,” read the appeal seeking to stay the high court order. The CBI had on Tuesday cracked down on Singh and registered two separate cases against him and his family members. Sixteen teams carried out searches on his premises in the state, including 14 in Noida. The suspended chief engineer is facing allegations of amassing assets worth several crores. He is alleged to have awarded irregular contracts for pecuniary gains.

The IT deparment has been tracking Singh since 2012. A raid in November 2014 had revealed shocking details of his ill-gotten wealth.

The high court had ordered a CBI probe on a PIL filed by social activist Nutan Thakur. The UP government said Centre’s keen interest in the case was questionable, especially when a judicial commission was looking into the allegations.

The UP government called Thakur a chronic litigant and accused her and her husband, a senior UP police officer, of having connections at the Centre.

The state said the high court should not have considered the joint-secretary’s letter since Singh’s case was that of corruption and not black money.

“The state government has serious concerns about the manner in which the Central government singled out this case for the purpose of having the CBI take over the investigation,” read the appeal, stating the state never came in the way of the investigation.