CBI closes Mulayam Singh Yadav’s DA case ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha polls

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New Delhi, Sept 20, 2013(CNN-IBN): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday closed the disproportionate assets case against Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has extended outside support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government on several occasions. CBI sources said that they are satisfied by Mulayam’s explanation provided about his assets and so the case was being closed.

The move to file the closure report in the case comes just a few months before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in 2014. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party is in power in Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha and where the Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party are eyeing a large number of seats in the 2014 elections. CBI sources said that they were transparent in the case and they will issue a detailed press release soon. Sources in the CBI also said that they are ready to stand any legal scrutiny.

The sources said that the agency is closing the case as Yadav’s chartered accountants have managed to explain every asset which was under the scrutiny of the agency leaving the nodal agency with no option but to close the probe. Yadav is said to have produced enough evidence to show that the assets grew during 1993-2005 because of loans from relatives which were later claimed to be the gifts.

The Supreme Court had ordered a CBI inquiry on March 1, 2007 into the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets by the Yadav family, on a PIL by an advocate Vishwanath Chaturvedi. Chaturvedi after the closure of the case said that he knew that this will be the outcome of the case. "I knew that this will happen. The CBI will have to explain in the court about its decision to close the case," Chaturvedi said.

The agency filed a status report in 2007 alleging that the Yadavs owned had an income of Rs 6.23 crore while expenditure was Rs 4.45 crore but they managed to acquire assets worth Rs 4.41 crore and hence Rs 2.63 crore worth of assets were disproportionate to their declared sources of income. The sources said of the Rs 2.63 crore of alleged disproportionate assets which were inquired by the agency between 1993-2005, nearly Rs 1.4 crore are in the name of Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple which had weakened the case.

In December 2012, the Supreme Court had directed the CBI to go ahead with the probe against Mulayam and his sons Akhilesh and Prateek but dropped the probe against Dimple saying that she was not holding any public office and was only a private person. Exclusion of Dimple changed course of investigation as allegedly unexplainable assets were in her name, the sources said, adding that the ruling weakened the case.

Exclusion of Dimple changed course of investigation as allegedly unexplainable assets were in her name, the sources said, adding that the ruling weakened the case.