LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday ordered the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of UP police to present the status report on the inquiry done so far into allegations of anomalies in the trust run by external affairs minister SalmanKhurshid. The court has sought the report on February 1.
The order was passed by a division bench of Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice Satish Chandra on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social activist Nutan Thakur.
In her PIL filed on October 15 last year, Thakur had demanded registration of a case on the basis of the charges levelled against the Zakir Hussain Trust run by Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise. Thakur had also expressed doubt over free and fair inquiry into the allegations under present political circumstances, hence she had asked the court to supervise the probe.
Six parties -- state government, EOW, central government through ministry of social justice, principal secretary social welfare UP, Aaj Tak through editor India Today group and Dr Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust -- were made respondents in the PIL.
After hearing the PIL, the court had on October 18 directed the Aaj Tak channel to present relevant documents and CD of its sting operation which exposed the alleged anomalies. The channel submitted the documents and the CD in a sealed cover before the court on Wednesday.
The state government had ordered the EOW to probe the allegations. Social activist Arvind Kejriwal had also raised questions over the fairness of the EOW probe and had accused Akhilesh Yadav government of trying to shield Khurshid, following which the PIL was filed.
Appearing on behalf of the Union government, senior counsel Vivek Tankha had then claimed that it was a proxy PIL, filed in a casual manner to malign and scandalise a person. On behalf of the state government, additional advocate general Bulbul Godiyal had also raised objections regarding the maintainability of the PIL. However, the petitioner's counsel Ashok Pandey had then argued that investigation should be done after lodging an FIR.
HC seeks status report on Khurshid trust probe
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HC seeks status report on Khurshid trust probe
