Activist Lawyer Prashant Bhushan Today moved an application in Common Cause Vs Union of India (WP(C) 505/2015) pending before the Supreme Court of India seeking thorough investigation into Sahara/Birla documents, allegedly showing huge payments to political parties and its alleged suppression by Government agencies and statutory bodies.
The application is moved in the pending case, filed by NGO ‘Common Cause’ challenging the appointment of Mr. K.V. Chaudhary as the Central Vigilance Commissioner and Mr. T.M. Bhasin as the Vigilance Commissioner as being “illegal and arbitrary”. A two Judge Bench had issued notice on the above petition on 13.08.2015 .
Through the petition, the intervention of the court is sought for further action on the evidence gathered in the raids on Sahara group and Birla group of companies on the allegation of bribing of important public functionaries. It is alleged that despite sufficient evidence, the issue is given a quiet burial by the Income Tax Department and the CBI.
It has been alleged in the petition that the documents allegedly seized by the CBI in its search operation in various offices of Sahara and Birla groups reported to have revealed massive bribery of politicians and officials of various ministries.
It is also alleged that although the documents seized indicated the commission of offences of corruption, bribery, possession of black money and disproportionate assets, and also of income tax violations, the CBI, instead of conducting a thorough scrutiny of their contents, simply transferred the highly incriminating documents to the Income Tax Department.
The Petition states that the documents ought to have been shared by the IT Department with the CBI & the SIT on Black Money, since the matter was not limited to Income Tax violations, but included bribery, corruption and possession of black money.
It is averred that, after coming in possession of the documents, the petitioners’ counsel, Mr. Prashant Bhushan, had addressed letters to the SIT on Black Money, the CVC, the CBI and the CBDT seeking a thorough investigation into the matter. He is said to have requested the Chairperson, Income Tax Settlement Commission, on 08.11.2016 not to allow any settlement in the cases and to direct the retention of all the seized records with the authorities, so that the evidence gathered could be investigated.
The petitioner seeks a direction from the Court to direct the CBI, the CBDT and the CVC to produce the records and the material recovered in the raids on Sahara and Birla groups before the Supreme Court so as to preclude the possibility of tampering or destruction. It is also prayed to direct the constitution of an SIT to inquire and thoroughly investigate the evidence gathered in the said raids.
This article has been made possible because of financial support from Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation.
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