Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari on Friday rejected former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director U.S. Mishra”s allegation that there was political pressure during the probe against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati in the disproportionate assets case.
Tewari said ”the CBI has unfortunately become the favourite whipping boy of everybody who is unfortunately on their wrong side”.
“I think you need to make that leap of faith and conclusively determine once for all whether you have faith in the CBI or you do not have faith in the CBI because you cannot have one standard when the CBI investigation suits your political objectives and another standard when it goes in a different direction all together,” said Tewari.
“So, all those people who make this charge of politicisation on the Central Bureau of Investigation should really once for all take this fundamental call as to where do they stand on both the efficacy and the relevance of the Central Bureau of Investigation,” he added.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla on his part alleged that the BJP should respond to the allegations made by Mishra for he was working as the CBI Director under the NDA regime during the Prime Ministership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
“To wake up after so many years and make such claims, I don”t think any importance should be given to such allegations. Also it needs to be confirmed under whose regime did he serve as the CBI chief. I think he was CBI chief, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister. So the BJP leaders should give an explanation,” he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said that the integrity of the main opposition party couldn”t be questioned for it had never taken law into its own hands.
“Let me clarify one thing. The integrity of BJP cannot be questioned because if we were controlling the CBI, we would have settled the Ayodhya”s Ram temple dispute among ourselves. But we did not take law in our own hands,” he said.
In an explosive claim, former CBI Director U.S. Mishra alleged that he faced pressure while probing the disproportionate assets case against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.
He also said that the CBI could face pressure again during the investigation against Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
—-ANI