Court seeks probe reports on charges against Mumbai Congress chief

MUMBAI - The Bombay High Court Wednesday directed two central and a state investigating agency to submit confidential reports of the status of their investigations into the allegations of corruption against Mumbai Congress president Kripa Shankar Singh.

A division bench of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More gave the directive while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Sanjay Tiwari alleging that Singh has amassed huge wealth through corrupt means.

“We want a status of the investigations… our direction is that by the next hearing you should submit the investigation report in a sealed cover,” Justice Desai said to the state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department, while fixing the next date of hearing Oct 27.

In his PIL, Tiwari has alleged that Singh is closely linked to the Madhu Koda scam and has amassed huge wealth.

His lawyers, Mahesh Jethmalani and Mihir Desai, said that since the case had wide ramifications and involved several agencies, a special investigating team should be set up to probe the issue.

State Advocate General Ravi Kadam said that as the state ACB was already investigating the matter, a special team was not required.

Singh’s lawyer Rajendra Raghuvanshi argued that the case was “politically motivated” to malign the image of the Congress leader and hence be dismissed.

The petitioner also pointed out that in 2006 when Singh was the AICC observer for Jharkhand, he was instrumental in installing the Madhu Koda government.

Koda is presently in jail along with his then ministerial colleague Kamlesh Singh, whose daughter Ankita is married to Kripa Shankar Singh’s son, Narendra alias Sanjay Singh.