The Bombay High Court on Friday refused to order a CBI inquiry–on a plea by social activist Anna Hazare --into the Rs 25,000 crore co-operative sugar factories scam, allegedly involving NCP chief Sharad Pawar, his nephew Ajit Pawar and others.
Hearing a public interest litigation filed by Hazare, a HC division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka said that it could not order a CBI inquiry into allegations against Pawar and others “at this stage” based on the activist’s PIl.
Advising Hazare to register a police complaint against the respondents first before seeking a CBI inquiry, the Judges noted, “First file a police complaint based on your allegations and if they (police) refuse to register it, then approach their higher authorities and even if that does not work out then come to us. At this stage, we would not order a CBI inquiry...You are asking for a CBI probe without even the offence being registered by police. How can you ask for transfer of probe when offence has not been registeredIJ”
After Hazare's counsel sought time to register a police case, the Judges scheduled the next hearing of the case for February 13.
The high court’s refusal to entertain Hazare’s plea “at this stage” comes two days after NCP chief Sharad Pawar threatened to file threatened to file a defamation suit against Hazare for making “wild” and “baseless” allegations against him. Pawar said: “I am taking legal opinion in this regard and would file criminal as well as civil suits in the courts,” Pawar had said at Thane on Wednesday.
The PIl is one of the three petitions that Hazare has filed against Pawar and others in the co-operative sugar factories scam. The two other petitions are civil cases which are expected to come up for hearing in the coming weeks.
In his PIl filed before the high court on Tuesday, Hazare had stated among other things: "There may not be any direct evidence to prove the involvement of Sharad Pawar or Ajit Pawar or other high-level officials in this scam of unfathomable degree. But there is more than sufficient circumstantial evidence showing their connection..."
Pawar was Union agriculture minister at the relevant time and ex-officio president of the Vasantdada Sugar Institute, while Ajit Pawar was then deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and a director of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank.
In a criminal PIl and two civil PIls filed in the court, Hazare has raised corruption issues in the functioning of sugar factories in Maharashtra.
Hazare has sought a CBI inquiry or establishment of a panel under the Commission of Enquiry Act, under a retired Supreme Court judge, within four weeks. He has also made the C BI a respondent in the case.
Hazare explained that the scam, into which he demanded probe, involved "burdening cooperative sugar factories with debt and then selling them at throwaway rates causing a loss of early Rs 25,000 crore to the government exchequer, the cooperative sector and public". He also demanded an inquiry into the sale of 43 sugar factories.
The veteran activist has sought a probe into what he said was a scam that first involved "burdening cooperative sugar factories with debt and then selling them at throwaway rates causing a loss of early Rs 25,000 crore to the government exchequer, the cooperative sector and public". He has sought an enquiry into the sale of 43 sugar factories.
Earlier this week, Pawar – while threatening to file a defamation suit against Hazare had said: “With the PIl in the high court, we will get an opportunity to explain as to what all we have done to save the crippling co-operative sugar industry in the state”.
Pawar had also wondered as to from where Hazare had arrived at the figure of Rs 25,000 being the “loss” allegedly caused by him and his nephew Ajit Pawar to the state exchequer through the “mismanagement” and "disintegration" of sugar cooperative factories in the state.