New Delhi: The Supreme Court was on Thursday informed that report of DNA and viscera samples of Ashustosh Asthana, prime accused in multi-crore provident fund scam allegedly involving several judges, would be available in another 10 days.
Asthana died under mysterious circumstnaces in a
Ghaziabad jail amidst suspicion that he was poisoned.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati made the submission
before a special three-judge bench headed by Justice D K Jain
while submitting the fifth status report on the progress in
the probe into the scandal by CBI on the directions of the
apex court.
The bench, also comprising V S Sirpurkar and G S
Singhvi, granted time to the investigating agency to furnish
CFSL reports relating to DNA and viscera of Asthana by January
31, 2010.
Asthana, who was a treasury officer at the Ghaziabad
court, was arrested in April 2008 in connection with siphoning
off provident fund of class III and IV employees. During
interrogation, he had named 36 judges of various courts,
including one of Supreme Court, as alleged beneficiaries of
the scam.
On October 17, he was found dead at Dasana district jail
in Ghaziabad where he was lodged after being arrested in
connection with the scam.
The investigation in the case is being done by CBI on the
directions of the apex court in September 2008 on the basis of
a petition filed by Nahar Singh Yadav, president of Advocates
Welfare Association, Ghaziabad.
Those named in the scam include seven Allahabad High
Court judges, six retired High Court judges and 12 judges of
subordinate judiciary in Uttar Pradesh.
Bureau Report
