UP PF scam: SC refuses to give documents to NHRC

The Supreme Court today declined permission to the Ghaziabad jail authority to supply to the NHRC, the reports pertaining to the inquiry into the death of Ashutosh Asthana, prime accused in the Uttar Pradesh Provident Fund scam, in judicial custody.

The Supreme Court on Thursday declined permission to the Ghaziabad jail authority to supply to the NHRC, the reports pertaining to the inquiry into the death of Ashutosh Asthana, prime accused in the Uttar Pradesh Provident Fund scam, in judicial custody.

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The jail superintendent of Ghaziabad had written two letters to the apex court informing that National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had sought reports of the judicial inquiry and viscera test conducted on Asthana.

After perusing the copy of the NHRC letter and documents of the jail authority, a bench comprising justices D K Jain, V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi said "no case is made out (for the supply of reports)."

The UP PF scam case had assumed significance as names of several judicial officers, former and sitting judges of the Allahabad high court and an apex court judge who retired last year, have figured as alleged beneficiaries of the scam involving withdrawal of several crore of rupees from the Ghaziabad district court treasury.

Asthana, (43) an administrative officer in the Ghaziabad district court treasury who died in Dasna Jail under mysterious circumstances on November 18, 2009, had named 36 judges.

70 people were accused in the PF scam, which relates to siphoning of money fraudulently from the PF accounts of class III and IV employees of the Ghaziabad district court during 2001-2008.

The scam was exposed after the then special CBI judge Rama Jain had lodged a criminal case against 70 people at Kavi Nagar police station on February 15, 2008.