Rise in Maya's wealth is a mystery: CBI

NEW DELHI: From Rs 1.35 crore to Rs 52 crore in just four years. The dramatic jump in Mayawati's assets - with little to show how it was acquired - is the mainstay of the affidavit CBI filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday to justify its decision to chargesheet her in a disproportionate assets case. ( Watch )

The charge listed in detail has been backed by documents running into over 100 pages, which can help CBI counter the allegation of frame-up the UP chief minister has levelled against the agency for insisting on prosecuting her. ( See Ninan’s cartoon )

The affidavit, which CBI sees as strong enough to help it secure a go-ahead from the SC, also includes her own accounts of the wealth.

It says that in April 2004, Mayawati in her affidavit before the returning officer for Akbarpur LS constituency put her assets at Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, Rs 9.78 lakh in bank deposits and properties worth Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi.

The CBI affidavit on Mayawati's assets also takes note of UP CM's submission before the returning officer for Akbarpur LS constituency.

In her affidavit in April 2004, Maya had put her assets at Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, Rs 9.78 lakh in bank deposits and properties worth Rs 1.25 crore in Delhi.

Just three years later, however, in the nomination papers filed during last year's assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, she put the value of her total assets at an enviable Rs 52 crore. No explanation was provided for the sudden jump, said the CBI affidavit.

When questioned by CBI, Mayawati came up with the ingenious explanation - first reported in TOI - that she owed the remarkable rise in her fortunes to the contributions ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 10 she had received from her lakhs of supporters who appreciated her commitment to the uplift of Dalits and backward class people.

CBI, however, said the explanation was not backed up by evidence.

The agency also took extra care to draw a bold line between the Taj Heritage Corridor scam and the DA case and said both the cases were being investigated separately.

Closure of the Taj corridor case because of refusal of sanction for her prosecution did not create any legal bar against CBI to take the probe into the DA case to the logical conclusion, CBI said in its affidavit. CBI said it did a professional job and thoroughly investigated each and every aspect of the DA case, painstakingly gathered evidence and came to a conclusion that it was a fit case for the agency to file final report (chargesheet) against her as mandated under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The affidavit was in response to Mayawati's petition accusing CBI of harassing her by keeping alive the DA case, which she said was only an offshoot of the Taj corridor scam. With the closure of the Taj corridor case, the DA case should also have been closed, she had said.

Citing her differences with the Congress-led UPA government, Mayawati had told the apex court that the investigation into the DA case was being used by the Centre to harass her politically.

The times of India dt. 12 7 2008