Supreme Court halts probe against Rahul Gandhi in assets case

Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi receives relief from the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has stayed the Allahabad High Court's order for a CBI-ED investigation against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, in a disproportionate assets case.

It is noteworthy that Karnataka BJP worker S. Vignesh Shishir had accused Rahul Gandhi of possessing assets beyond his known sources of income and demanded a CBI-ED investigation. In May, the Allahabad High Court had directed the agencies to investigate the allegations made in the complaint. Rahul Gandhi had approached the Supreme Court regarding this.

On Monday, during the hearing of the case, the bench of Chief Justice Suryakant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana of the Supreme Court instructed that no further proceedings be conducted in the disproportionate assets case against Rahul Gandhi. Additionally, the CBI and ED have been directed not to file any report in this matter before the High Court.

Importantly, the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether the allegations against Rahul Gandhi are true or false. By staying the High Court proceedings, it has opened the way to hear the case itself. The Supreme Court has also issued notices to the petitioner S. Vignesh Shishir, CBI, and ED.

It is noteworthy that earlier, on August 14, the Supreme Court had quashed the criminal proceedings against Rahul Gandhi in which he had described Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a collaborator of the British. The court stated that the necessary legal sanction to prosecute Rahul Gandhi had not been obtained.

The bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu accepted Gandhi's petition challenging the summons issued by a magistrate in Lucknow. The bench noted that the affidavit filed by the Uttar Pradesh government did not mention that the necessary sanction to prosecute Gandhi had been granted.

The bench stated that if there is no sanction, then no case is made. You have to follow the law.

In its order, the bench said, “We have heard the arguments of the learned counsels of the parties. There is no mention of sanction being granted in the affidavit filed by the respondent Uttar Pradesh government. In such a situation, the orders passed by the magistrate are quashed.”

The news is being updated.