New Delhi, October 20: The Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam assumed wider a wider dimension on Tuesday morning as the Supreme Court asked the Uttar Pradesh government to hand over the viscera report of main accused Ashutosh Asthana to CBI for further examination.
The court ordered a judicial enquiry into the death of the accused and asked CBI to examine the report at All India Institute of Medical Science and submit the report to the apex court within eight weeks. The state government or the High Court would not be allowed to intervene in the case now.
A clerk with the Ghaziabad district courts, Asthana was dubbed as the kingpin of a scandal involving the fraudulent withdrawal of social security fund from the district court’s treasury to the tune of Rs.2,300 million between 2000 and 2008.
He was accused of having embezzled the social security fund of the court’s lower grade employees with the collusion of judicial officers, including sitting judges.
After the initial probe by the Ghaziabad police, the investigations into the scam were handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court following a public interest lawsuit.
On Monday, the SC had asked for not cremating the body of Asthana but was informed that the body was assigned to flames on Sunday evening.
A bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice H.L. Dattu issued the order on a plea by senior counsel Anil Diwan who approached the court for an independent probe into the mysterious death of Asthana in Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad Saturday.
Diwan told the court that there was some uncertainty about reports of Asthana’s cremation, and accordingly the court should issue direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that if his body has not been cremated till then, it should not be cremated till further orders.
Approving Diwan’s demand, the court told him to inform the CBI counsel accordingly.
In his early 40s, Asthana had told a magisterial court in his deposition that a substantial chunk of the fund was spent in sending lavish gifts to judges, including those from Allahabad High Court (AHC) and one of the apex court.
He was the only one aware of the full details of the scam and had provided the CBI with documents that established connivance of a number of judicial officers, including a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, seven of the AHC, 12 judges of the subordinate courts and six retired AHC judges.
—Agencies