Taj Corridor case: Governor refuses sanction to prosecute Mayawati

UP CM Mayavati gets reprieve from Governor in Taj Corridor case.

6 June, 2007:

T V Rajeswar, Governor of Uttar Pradesh, has refused to accord sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Mayawati and her Cabinet colleague Nasimuddin Sidique in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor case.

The previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government had, barely two days before the counting of votes on May 11, 2007, referred the CBI’s request in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage case to Governor T V Rajeswar.

Earlier on Tuesday, the designated court hearing the Taj Heritage Corridor case deferred the hearing of the matter till July 5, 2007, after one of the accused sought more time to file some court rulings on the contention by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging his locus standi.

Special judge (anti-corruption) Rekha Dixit deferred the matter after counsel for R K Sharma, former environment secretary of Uttar Pradesh, moved an application seeking time to file the rulings on the CBI’s reply on his intervention application.

The matter could not be heard as the court adjourned the hearing on the application by Sharma’s counsel.

The CBI, which was given till May 15 last to file the sanction for prosecuting six accused persons, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, did not file the sanction on Tuesday.

On May 15, the CBI had moved an adjournment application seeking time to file the same.

Counsels for the CBI had on May 23 filed a reply on the intervention application of Sharma in which the agency had contested his locus standi in the matter.

Sharma`s counsel in his intervention application had challenged the order of the designated court passed on February 15.

Besides Mayawati and Sharma, the other accused in the Taj Heritage Corridor case included Naseemuddin Siddique, former environment minister and a close confidant of Mayawati, Rajendra Prasad, undersecretary, and V K Gupta, former IAS officer.