SC colluding with the corrupt: Prashant Bhushan

New Delhi: Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan has attacked the Supreme Court for providing relief to former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in the disproportionate assets case. Bhushan alleged that the Supreme Court is 'colluding with the corrupt bureaucracy'.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, Bhushan said, "Everyone knows the track record of the CBI and that it is tightly controlled by the central government and it is used by the central government for its own political purposes. But this not the ground on which the Supreme Court has quashed this FIR against Maya. In my view this is an utterly indefensible judgement. In fact it sends out a signal to the people of this country that the Supreme Court is collaborating with a corrupt executive and the corrupt high profile people."

The Congress reacted sharply saying it was shocking that a senior lawyer has made such an allegation. "It is dangerous that Prashant Bhushan does not believe in the neutrality of the Supreme Court," the Congress said.

In a breather to BSP supremo and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, the Supreme Court on Friday quashed a CBI probe against her in the disproportionate assets case and also pulled up the CBI for initiating the probe against her without specific directions from the court.

The court said that the CBI should not have lodged an FIR against Mayawati as there was no direction from it. "We are satisfied that we didn't issue any direction to probe alleged disproportionate assets of Mayawati between 1995-2003," the court said.

The apex court observed that the CBI FIR was unwarranted and the central agency proceeded without understanding its order in the Taj corridor case. "The CBI proceeded against Mayawati without properly understanding our order. Anything beyond Taj Corridor scam was not subject matter of this court. There is no finding and no material report pertaining to the DA case against Mayawati," the court said.

A bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam clarified that the Supreme Court order pertained to initiating probe against state government officials in the scam and there was no such direction to lodge another FIR exclusively against Mayawati for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to her known sources of income.

The apex court said there is no finding in the CBI's status report of September 2008 that Mayawati had allegedly amassed disproportionate assets during the period 1995-2003. "There is no material report of disproportionate assets case against the petitioner (Mayawati) in the Taj Corridor scam," the bench said while referring to the probe agency's status report.

The court further said that its order of 2002 was specifically pertaining to Taj Corridor case and there was no direction for lodging an FIR against Mayawati as was done by the CBI.

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