#SupremeCourt terms #RahulGandhi’s Rs 40 crore Sahara scam allegation on Narendra Modi as fictitious
New Delhi, December 22: The Supreme Court on Wednesday has completely dismissed the allegations made by Rahul Gandhi against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Wednesday Rahul Gandhi while addressing a rally in Mehsana alleged that Sahara paid Rs 40 crore to Narendra Modi before he became the prime minister of India.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday in its proceedings has dismissed the documents seized by the income tax department as “zero”, “fictitious” and not “authentic”. The documents are part of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by eminent lawyer Prashant Bhushan alleging payoffs by corporate houses to politicians, including Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister. The court in its proceedings said that the documents were not credible enough for a probe to be ordered.
Earlier on November 25, a bench comprising of two judges, Justice JS Khehar and Arum Mishra asked Prashant Bhushan to furnish other “credible” evidence to substantiate the allegations against the Prime Minister.
Bhushan in his application had alleged that the documents “reportedly revealed massive bribery” of politicians and officials by Aditya Birla Group and Sahara over the years. He mentioned that the Sahara documents said a huge amount of cash was given to the Chief Minister of Gujarat in October and November 2013.
Justice Khekar while listening to the plea reportedly said, “Are you relying on Sahara’s documents? They never have genuine documents”.
According to Times of India, the court said, “Any suspicion that arouses conscience is a good suspicion but your documents don’t arouse our conscience. We are not satisfied at all… Any corrupt person can make an entry in the name of the Prime Minister, but it cannot be treated as credible evidence.”
Bhushan also claimed that Birla group paid Rs 7.8 crore to get no objection certificate from environment department in January and February 2012, when Jayanthi Natarajan headed the ministry during UPA’s rule. The apex court also advised Bhushan that something authentic must be placed before the court and granted him time till December 14 to place additional evidence. Meanwhile, the case is adjourned until January 11 but strongly disapproved Bhushan’s conduct.
