Petition prays action against CBI officials involved in bribery

New Delhi, Jun 8 (UNI) The Delhi High Court has adjourned the hearing of the petition seeking direction to the authorities to initiate action against the CBI officials, who were allegedly involved in accepting bribe during investigation of the multi-crore housing scam in the capital.

After the preliminary hearing, acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain said as the companion Judge was on leave, the matter would be heard after the summer vacations on July 7.

The petition, filed by Journalist Satender Naran, has asked the court to hand over the investigation to any other investigating agency other than the CBI, initiate action against the corrupt CBI officials and call for the records of the investigation for scrutiny.

Seeking his intervention in the proceedings of the case, Naran said if he was allowed to assist the court, he would ''further sharpen the investigation''.

CBI Inspectors N M Sherawat and Yogender Kumar, who were investigating the cases, were nabbed by departmental sleuths for allegedly accepting bribe for extending official favours to the builders and those involved in the scam, said the petition.

''The arrest of these CBI officials and others by the CBI proves that the investigation done by the agency was not impartial,''it said.

The petition alleged that some other higher officials of the CBI were also resorting to corrupt practices in extending favours to the builders and corrupt officials of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS).

The CBI was also not initiating action against 53 persons who were allegedly involved in the scam despite registering preliminary enquiry(PE) against them, alleged the petition. The petitioner has submitted the list of the persons named in those PEs.

The Delhi High Court had directed the CBI to probe the multi-crore rupees housing scam in July 2005.

UNI PAT VD HT1834