BJP bats for judicial inquiry against Mulayam

New Delhi, Mar 2 (UNI) The BJP today sought a judicial inquiry by a sitting High Court judge into the alleged disproportionate assets of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, saying the CBI's credibility was at its lowest after the handling of the Ottavio Quattrocchi case.

BJP Parliamentary Party Spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said the Government should plead before the Supreme Court to entrust the inquiry to a High Court judge instead of the CBI.

Refusing to comment on the allegations made against the Chief Minister, Mr Malhotra said the inquiry would bring out the facts.

There was a prima facie case against him and hence the Court had ordered an inquiry. If the government made such a proposal, the apex court should have no hesitation in accepting it, he felt.

The BJP, he said wanted Uttar Pradesh to be liberated from the clutches of the Samajwadi Party and its ''mafia'', and elections should be held in a fair and free manner.

Mr Malhotra alleged the credibility of the CBI had been reduced by the UPA in the last three years to help chosen personalities like Mr Satish Sharma and Railways Minister Lalu Prasad, and harm people like Ms Maneka Gandhi. The agency had been misused in the sensitive Ayodhya case also, he claimed.

The reputation of the organisation was at its lowest in five decades, he added.

UNI