SC dismisses disproportionate assets case against Mayawati

The Supreme Court today dismissed the case against Mayawati in which she was charged with massive corruption and owning assests that could not be explained against her sources of income.

A bench headed by Justice P Sathasivam said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was not justified in filing the case against her in the first place, stressing that the CBI's case against her was illegal and without jurisdiction. 

"There was no direction to the CBI to conduct a probe into the petitioner's assets. The agency had only been directed to probe the Taj Corridor case. There's no material against her available to this court," the judges said.

In Lucknow, Mayawati said in what seemed like a victory speech, "This is the right decision. I wholeheartedly thank all my party members. My party members stood like a hard rock beside me and never left me in any of the circumstances and backed me during this case even after facing lots of ups and downs since 9-10 years."

The Samajwadi Party, which is presently in power in UP blamed the CBI for the lapses and its leader Shahid Siddiqui said it was not Mayawati's victory but CBI's defeat, as the investigation agency committed technical errors. He asked whether the investigation agency committed the error on purpose to save Mayawati or was it a genuine mistake, would need to be answered.

Mayawati had all along maintained that the case against her was politically motivated and in 2008, she asked the Supreme Court to cancel the investigation into her wealth.