In a major relief for former Uttar Pradesh Chief Ministers Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday gave a clean chit to the Samajwadi Party bosses in the disproportionate assets (DA) case.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the CBI said that it could not find any evidence to register a Regular Case (RC) against the father and son.
The SP founder and the party chief were named along with Mulayam’s son Prateek Yadav and daughter-in-law and Dimple Yadav, who is the wife of Akhilesh Yadav and an MP from Kannauj.
“No prima facie evidence of commission of offence was found during enquiry and the enquiry was not converted into and FIR,” the CBI said in its affidavit.
The probe agency said that inquiry into the case was closed in 2013 as no evidence could be found. It said it closed the enquiry after submitting a report to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in 2013.
After August 2013 no inquiry has been conducted in the case against Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav, the CBI told the court.
In March, the Supreme Court issued notice to the CBI on a plea seeking a direction to the probe agency to place the investigation report in the disproportionate assets case against SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his sons, Akhilesh Yadav and Prateek Yadav.
The case was filed in 2005 by Congress activist Vishwanath Chaturvedi against Mulayam and his family. Mulayam had earlier said that the CBI and the Income Tax (I-T) authorities did not find anything adverse.
He had claimed that the Congress activist was trying to rake up an old disproportionate assets case against him and his family to malign their image during the general elections.
Acting on a plea, the apex court had in March asked CBI to place before it the status of its investigations in two weeks.
The shot in the arm for the father and son came amid efforts by opposition parties to stitch a post-poll alliance.
The SP contested the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).