Lucknow: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Monday conducted two-hour long hearing in the chamber on a plea seeking CBI and ED inquiry into the allegations that Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has amassed disproportionate assets.The order was not available on the high court website till filing of the story, but the website showed the case was listed for next hearing on Aug 20.A bench of Justice RS Chauhan and Justice BR Singh passed the order on a criminal writ petition moved by a Karnataka BJP worker S. Vignesh Shishir. The petitioner has accused Rahul of accumulating disproportionate assets.During the previous hearing in the case on May 12, the bench had observed that “if complaint of the petitioner Shishir was received, the allegations of the complaints may be verified as per law. It is needless to say that the CBI or ED may take appropriate steps which are permissible under the law.”Besides CBI and ED, the bench had directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) , the revenue department, ministry of finance, ministry of corporate affairs and the Director of Serious Fraud Investigation Office to file their responses to the allegations levelled by the petitioner against Rahul within eight weeks .The bench had conducted the previous hearing too in the chamber. The order had stated that the CBI informed the bench that the agency had received the petitioner’s complaint and would file its response within 8 weeks. Similarly, the ED had informed the bench that it had received the complaint and might verify the allegations and apprise the court on July 20 .While seeking replies from several govt agencies, the bench said, “By filing response in form of counter-affidavit, the progress in respect of complaint submitted by the petitioner to the aforesaid agencies may be apprised to the court.”To a query whether the petition was maintainable, the bench said this submission would be tested after receiving the counter-affidavits of the respective parties and the rejoinder affidavits thereof.Furthermore, the court had ordered its senior registrar that the paper-book and the loose documents provided by the petitioner be kept in a sealed cover to be opened on July 20.
