News18: Lucknow: Friday, May 05, 2017.
The Akhilesh
Yadav government had paid Rs 21.15 lakh as fee to senior lawyers of the Supreme
Court engaged to save suspended Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh from facing
CBI probe in graft and money laundering cases, according to an RTI response.
As per the
RTI information provided by Surendra Pal Singh, Special Secretary (Law), four
senior lawyers were engaged by the previous Akhilesh Yadav government.
Kapil Sibal
was given a fee of Rs 8.80 lakh, Harish Salve Rs 5.00 lakh, Rakesh Dwivedi Rs
4.05 lakh and Dinesh Dwivedi Rs 3.30 lakh, taking the total to Rs 21.25 lakh,
claimed activist Nutan Thakur citing the response to her RTI plea.
Yadav Singh
was arrested by the CBI in February last year for allegedly abusing his
official position in awarding contracts and causing wrongful loss to the
government exchequer.
The
Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 19.92 crore in a money
laundering case that involves the former Noida chief engineer.
Nutan had
filed a PIL in Allahabad High Court in the matter. Its Lucknow bench had
directed that the Yadav Singh case be transferred to CBI.
The UP
government had appealed against this order before the Supreme Court but it was
dismissed at the first hearing itself on July 16, 2015.
Nutan said it
was "alarming" to note that the state government had
"wasted" such a huge amount to save a "tainted person" like
Yadav Singh and sought recovery of the public money from the pocket of the
concerned public authorities.
The ED had
earlier registered two ECIRs (equivalent to an FIR) under sections of the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED cases have been registered on
the basis of the FIR filed by the CBI.
The CBI last
year conducted searches at 12 locations in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad in
connection with its probe against Singh over award of contracts related to
Noida, Greater Noida and the Yamuna Expressway authorities. It had also seized
files, documents, laptops, iPads and computers.
After an
Allahabad High Court order, the CBI had registered two cases against Singh and
his family members for alleged corruption and amassing assets disproportionate
to known sources of income.
Singh's case
came to the fore after the Income Tax department first carried out searches
against him and others on tax evasion charges.
A scrutiny of
ITRs and other connecting records reportedly revealed that during the period
2009-14, the total likely savings of the family of the then chief engineer was
approximately Rs 1.70 crore, whereas they were in possession of immovable
property worth around Rs 3.60 crore, CBI had said.
"Besides,
approximately Rs 10 crore was allegedly recovered from one of his associates
which reportedly belonged to the then chief engineer," the CBI had said.
An attachment
of assets order under PMLA is aimed to deprive the accused from taking benefits
from their ill-gotten wealth.