Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati suffered a setback on Monday, as the Supreme Court cleared the decks for her prosecution in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor scam.
It quashed a CBI report, which recommended closure of the case against her.
In a unanimous decision, a Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha, S H Kapadia and D K Jain directed the CBI to place all materials and documents before the Special Magistrate for taking appropriate action. These would include the report of its superintendent of police under whose supervision the case was investigated.
The Bench took strong exception to the fact that despite the entire investigating team favouring Mayawati's prosecution, the CBI director preferred to refer the matter to Attorney General Milon K Banerji for his opinion.
"In the present case there was no difference of opinion on investigation by the investigating team. Therefore there was no question of referring the matter to AG for his opinion," Justice Kapadia, reading the judgement for the Bench, said.
The Bench made it clear that the Magistrate will proceed strictly in accordance with Section 173 (2) of the CrPC on the basis of materials placed before it and restrained the agency from sending the opinions of the Attorney General and Central Vigilance Commission.
"We also have to clarify here that the opinion of the AG and CVC shall not be forwarded to the court concerned," the Bench said.
