Taj Corridor case: HC reserves order on petitions against judgment on Mayawati trial

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a bunch of PILs seeking quashing of the decision of the Special CBI Judge.

The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on a bunch of PILs seeking quashing of the decision of the Special CBI Judge by which former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati and her Cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui were discharged from prosecution on the ground that the sanction for prosecution had been rejected by the Governor in the Taj Heritage Corridor case of 2003.

The Bench comprising Justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and Ashwani Kumar Singh,who held the final hearing in the matter,directed both the petitioners and the respondents to make their written submissions by the end of this month.

The CBI,which investigated the case,had filed a chargesheet against Mayawati,Naseemuddin Siddiqui,former principal secretary of environment R K Sharma and former environment secretary Rajendra Prasad under IPC sections 420,467,468 and 471 before a special CBI court here in 2007. It said they had siphoned off Rs 175 crore in the name of construction of a corridor around the Taj and other monuments in Agra,causing loss to the government exchequer.

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But the judge did not admit the chargesheet and discharged the accused on the ground that the then Governor T V Rajeswar had withheld the sanction to prosecute Mayawati and Siddiqui in June 2007.

In 2009,three separate PILs were filed before the Lucknow Bench of the High Court against the special CBI courts order by Kamlesh Verma,Anupama Singh and Qateel Ahmed. While the matter was pending before the court,three more similar PILs were filed in 2011 by Kashi Prasad Yadav,Mamta Singh and Sachindra Pratap Singh.

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