SC declines to give urgent hearing in wheat allotment scam

New Delhi, Feb 2 (UNI) The Supreme Court today declined to give an urgent hearing to an application seeking directions to CBI to conduct investigation de novo (fresh) into Rs 1 lakh crore scam involving alleged diversion of wheat allotted for Public Distribution System(PDS) for blackmarketing from Uttar Pradesh. A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam told the applicant Vishwanath Chaturvedi that there was no urgency involved in the matter and let it come in the due course. Mr Chaturvedi in his application has alleged that huge quantities of wheat meant for the poor were smuggled to Nepal and Bangladesh, with the active connivance of top politicians and bureaucrats, both from state as well as from the Centre, who include IAS officers, Railway authorities and others exposing a nexus between politicians and officials. The petitioner has also urged the court that the CBI should be directed to carry out investigation into the scandal without being influenced by the observations made by former CBI director Vijay Shankar Tewari. The petitioner has also cited the statement of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan in Bangalore on November 23 last year saying that there was rampant corruption in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The CBI has been dragging its seat in the investigation of the scandal inspite of the specific directions of Allahabad High Court dated March 24, 2005 to conduct speedy investigation in the scam. Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Chief Minister of the state at the relevant time. Nobody has been named in the application filed in the apex court.

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