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Jharkhand High Court
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Jharkhand High Court on Thursday rejected a series of petitions filed by four former state ministers’ relatives who are allegedly involved in the disproportionate assets case being investigated by the CBI.
The petitions were filed by Abhishek Singh (nephew of former health minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi), Madhu Singh (wife of former water resource minister Kamlesh Singh), Sushila Devi (former urban development minister Harinarayan Rai’s wife), Menon Ekka (wife of former rural development minister Anosh Ekka) and Jaikant Bara (Anosh Ekka’s brother-in-law).
The bench of Justice R.R. Prasad held that allegations against the petitioners of amassing wealth in excess of their income were very serious and the criminal case against them was not fit to be quashed.
The petitioners contended that they had been wrongly implicated in the CBI case.
The petitioners’ counsels said the money and wealth attributed to the accused had actually been acquired by their better known relatives who had invested in their names.
Sameer Saurabh, the counsel of Madhu Singh, argued that abetment charges could not be labelled against his client and the other accused. The actual crime might have been committed by Madhu Singh’s husband and wealth generated in her name which she was not even aware of, the advocate said.
CBI counsel Mokthar Khan, however, refuted the pleas, saying that money and wealth running into crores of rupees had been invested in the names of the accused. He added the petitioners had also failed to reveal the genuine source of the amassed wealth, which was generated by “swindling the public exchequer”.
Khan said the CBI was probing the case at the behest of the high court. On August 4, 2010, a division bench of the high court had ordered an independent probe by the agency into the assets of the former ministers and their kin.
The CBI’s probe has so far revealed that several plots, buildings and fictitious companies had been floated in the names of the accused resulting in enormous wealth acquired from tainted money.
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