The Allahabad High Court bench on Friday directed the CBI to take over investigations related to the multi-crore foodgrains scam in Sitapur district, which were so far being probed by various state agencies.
A division bench comprising Justices Devi Prasad Singh and S C Chaurasia passed this order on a pending PIL filed by Vishwanath Chaturvedi, seeking a CBI probe into the scam allegedly committed in various districts of the state.
The CBI had been probing the scam in Ballia and Kheri districts till now while the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh police was probing the matter in 54 other districts.
The court also stayed the trial of proceedings of the scam in Sitapur in which chargesheets had been filed after investigations by state agencies.
It directed the CBI and the state government, whose representative principal secretary to Governor, G B Patnaik, appeared before the court to suggest names for constituting a high-level monitoring committee for supervising the ongoing probe by various agencies and reporting its status to it.
Joint director CBI Javeed Ahmed also appeared before the court and informed the status of investigation.
{{/usCountry}}Joint director CBI Javeed Ahmed also appeared before the court and informed the status of investigation.
{{/usCountry}}The court fixed March 10 as the next date of hearing and directed additional director food and civil supplies V K Singh to appear before it for assistance.