CBI counts Mayawati's Millions

Lucknow July 10, 2008

CBI had to do as little as to retrieve the election-affidavits filed by Mayawati to nail her. The affidavits account for a rise from Rs 1.35 crore to Rs 52 crore in just four years. The astounding jump in Mayawati’s assets, with only flimsy evidence to prove how it was acquired, has become the focus of CBI's affidavit The agency filed this counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court on Thursday to justify its decision to charge sheet the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in a disproportionate assets case.

The charges listed in detail are backed by documents running into over 100 pages. On this very basis the CBI has insisted on prosecuting Mayawati. The affidavit 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. This totalled Rs 1.35 crore.

Four years later for the nomination papers filed during 2007 assembly elections in U.P., her affidavit puts the value of her total assets at Rs 52 crore. The sudden increase in wealth has not been explained, says the CBI affidavit. When questioned by CBI, Mayawati came up with the clever explanation that she had collected the money through her supporters contributions ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 10. CBI, however, said no evidence was provided by her towards this explanation.

CBI said in its affidavit that it did a professional job by thoroughly investigating each and every aspect of the DA case. It had painstakingly gathered evidence and came to a conclusion that it was a fit case for filing the charge sheet 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.

The CBI affidavit claimed that 96 plots, houses and orchards were bought between 1998 and 2003 by Mayawati and her relatives. The affidavit gives graphic details of the properties acquired by the UP chief minister’s father Prabhu Dayal, her brothers Raj Kumar, Siddharth Kumar, Subhash Kumar and Anand Kumar, and cousins Tej Singh and Rajveer Singh. It says that they opened 94 bank accounts to stash away money unaccounted for.

The affidavit said the investigations into the disproportionate assets case against Mayawati were completed as far back as 2006, but the BSP supremo, who was questioned on May 10, 2005 at her residence, sent a fresh representation on July 17, 2006, requesting her re-examination by CBI.

‘‘Mayawati was re-examined at her residence. This was followed by a series of representations submitted by Mayawati and her family members raising new contentions and claims on each occasion, which resulted in continuation of the investigation, which now finally stands concluded,’’ the CBI said. ‘‘Final decision has been taken by the competent authority to file the Final Report (charge sheet) under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” CBI said.

According to the affidavit following are the details of bank accounts in the name of UP chief minister Mayawati, her relatives and associates, and properties bought by them from 1998 to 2003. It says 74 properties, including 41 agricultural plots, 18 residential plots, 5 forest plots, 7 shops, business and commercial properties, 2 shops-cum-residences, 3 gardens/orchards are valued at Rs 7.78 crore. Besides there are 22 other properties acquired by Mayawati in own name or that of family members, relatives and associates include 4 residential buildings at Inderpuri, Delhi. According to the affidavit 54 bank accounts and deposits totalling Rs 7.36 crore were seized in Mayawati's and her relatives' names. Forty more bank accounts with a deposit of Rs 5.29 crore were frozen.

These were allegedly used to channel funds into her and her relatives' accounts. Mayawati's sister-in-law purchased 60% share in Hotel Shilton, Mussoorie, for Rs 90 lakh, 307 donations/gifts worth Rs 13.18 crore were shown to have been received by Mayawati, her family members and relatives from more than 130 donors. The CBI traced 30 donors, who said they do not have the means to donate the said huge amounts .

Mayawati has Mulayam on a sticky wicket

Lucknow, July 2, 2008

Chief minister Mayawati's clever twist by calling nuclear deal anti-Muslim has Samajwadi Party (SP) and its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on a sticky wickets. As a result Mulayam's younger brother and senior SP functionary Shivpal Singh Yadav convened a media conference today to call Mayawati's statement "mischievous and politically angled". But a group of important Sunni and Shia Muslim religious leaders called on Mayawati this afternoon and openly came out in support of her views.


Mayawati had in a press conference yesterday lambasted the Samajwadi Party for joining hands with the Congress and by doing so supporting the nuke deal. Terming Yadav as a great ‘opportunist,’ Mayawati said that he had decided to back the Congress on the issue of nuclear deal in spite of the fact that it had been widely opposed in the country and enraged Muslims in particular. “The cause for this is that the deal has been done at the cost of cheap gas from Iran,” she said.


Shivpal Singh today had to come out in defence of his party's position. He also charged," Mayawati has always joined hands with communal forces and the Muslims are too familiar with her real character." As he did the explaining, a parallel press conference was held by a Muslim SP MP and some former SP leaders to criticise the likely tie-up with Congress. Said SP MP from Muzzaffarnagar Munnawar Hasan in presence of former SP minister Gauri Shanker, "The party's interest is being traded away by Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, who has struck a deal with US."


Meanwhile an influential group of Muslim religious leaders met the CM Mayawati today. They included Maulana Dr. Kalbe Sadiq, Maulana Hamidul Hasan, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangimahali Nayab Imam Idgah, Maulana Fazlurrehman, Imam Tile wali Masjid, Maulana Naimurrehman, Maulana Aleem Faruqui, Sayyed Aijaz Ahmed, Siraj Mehdi, Wasim Rizvi, Sayyed Zaheerul Hasan and Amirul Hasan. According to official release of the government, these religious clerics of Shia and Sunni Community jointly said that the Chief Minister should use her influence to prevent the anti-national atomic deal with America.


The move is certainly rattling for the Samajwadi Party which is the self-proclaimed custodians of the Muslims.

Mayawati harsh on black sheep in BSP

Lucknow, June 30:

U.P. Chief Minister Mayawati likes to lead from the front even in setting precedents for today's politics. At a time when the measures taken to check criminalisation of politics or for that matter the ongoing debate on the issue seem to be going nowhere, controversial politician Mayawati is showing the way. On June 29, 2008 she once again showed how a top leader of a political party can weed out black sheep from its own flock.

Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Bhagwan Sharma alias Guddu Pandit was arrested from Mayawati's Noida residence for allegedly "abducting" a woman television reporter three days back. Pandit, who was shown as having been taken into custody from Sector 24 of Noida, has been charged under various Sections of Indian Penal Code by the police, officials sources said. The chief minister had acted against her party's mafia MP Umakant Yadav by getting her arrested from her Lucknow residence in May 2007.

An MLA from Dibai Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Pandit was summoned by Chief Minister Mayawati at her residence here after the reporter lodged a complaint with her about his misbehavior. The victim - Sheetal told Mayawati that Pandit had allegedly forced him to travel with him from one place to another. Sheetal’s father, Dinesh Chand Birla has complained that the legislator had married his daughter despite having a wife and two kids. Pandit was handed over a notice from investigation officer of Gijod police station for appearing before him.

Noida (city) Superintendent of Police Ashok Tripathi said he was summoned and placed under arrest. A case, under Section 147 (rioting), 366 (deceitful means to compel a person to travel places), 363 (whoever kidnaps or abducts a women and compels her to marry or have a sexual relation), 497 (adultery) and 420 (cheating), has been registered against the BSP MLA.

On May 31, 2007 Mayawati had got the BSP's MP, Umakant Yadav, arrested from the reception of her Lucknow residence. A dat before Yadav was named the main accused in a land grabbing case in Azamgarh district. The MP was promprtly suspended from the party for six years. His son, Dinesh Yadav, who was also named an accused in the case was expelled from the party. The MP's son had contested the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections from Khuthan on a BSP ticket.

Yadav, who was arrested by the Hazratganj police, was taken on transit remand by the Azamgarh police, which had come to Lucknow to trace him.

In an official Press statement, the Chief Minister said that her Government would not spare any person involved in a criminal act, irrespective of his status.

Talking to newsmen at the police station, Mr. Yadav said he had gone to meet "Behenji" to present his viewpoint. He obviously claimed that he was not involved in the land grabbing case. But chief minister Mayawati was not convinced.

Mayawati's withdrawal of support to UPA

By Dilip Awasthi
BSP chief Mayawati does not seem to believe in springing surprises in politics. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's decision to withdraw support to the UPA government on June 21, 2008 hardly had any shock-value.
The decision surely has come in difficult times for the Congress-led UPA government which is already facing the wrath of the people for its failure to check soaring prices and inflation. Mayawati's withdrawal of support means that the central government will be poorer by 19 members in the Lok Sabha. This would hardly threaten the government in any way apart from the political message which the withdrawal would send.
The Congress in any case had been working on its contingency plans ever since January 7, 2008 when CM Mayawati announced in a media conference in New Delhi that her party is contemplating withdrawal of support to the UPA government. Both Congress president and Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh had been angling for some kind of working relationship with the Samajwadi Party (SP) which has 35 members in the Lok Sabha.
The question whether SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will come closer to the UPA government and to what extent will be answered shortly but it would be interesting to examine the political consequences of BSP's withdrawal of support. First of all in no case the two parties would have gone hand-in-hand for the next Lok Sabha elections. Both Congress and the BSP are heavily dependent on the dalit votes - Congress in most of the state and the BSP mainly in Uttar Pradesh.
The BSP is vying for a national status now and would like to carve in a support base in other states also. According to BSP insiders, chief minister Mayawati strongly believes that she can emerge as a compromise prime ministerial candidate if her party can win around 50 Lok Sabha seats in the next outing. Going by her strength in Uttar Pradesh, she can expect bagging 30-35 seats in her home state. Sharing its vote bank with Congress as it is would be disastrous.
In her letter to the President of India with copies marked to UPA chiarperson Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chaterjee and vice-president Mohd. Hamid Ansari, Mayawati has claimed people's, specially for the poor and downtrodden, woes following price-rise and inflation as the main reason for BSP's withdrawal of support. But then in her four-paged note, Mayawati criticises the Congress for not bailing her out in the "fictitious Taj corridor" case.
She recalls that this very case was the reason why she severed the alliance with BJP on August 29, 2003 and resigned as UP's chief minister. According to her the BJP had asked her party to leave 60 out of the total 80 Lok Sabha seats and contest for merely 20 seats in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. She refused point-blank. She claims that BJP vindictively started "falsely implicating me" in the Taj corridor case. "In national interest I ended the alliance with BJP. The Congress promised to ensure justice for me in the same case but as I can see it, the party has deliberately has kept the issue pending for the last four years. Both these parties in no case are liking BSP's increasing mass base in the country", she claims.
The reasons obviously are political and Mayawati is not camouflaging this. Now is the Congress's turn to react. The reaction could well be expediting the CBI investigation in the Taj case and Mayawati's assets case.