SC to review plea demanding CBI probe against Vasundhara Raje, her son

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea seeking a CBI probe against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her son for allegedly receiving compensation of Rs 1.97 crore by selling a piece of government land to NHAI for the widening of a national highway in 2010.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices K M Joseph and Hemant Gupta issued a notice to Raje, her parliamentarian son Dushyant Singh and the CBI and sought their response in four weeks.

"Issue notice," the bench said after senior advocate Anoop George Chaudhari said that the high court was wrong in dismissing the petition.

Srijana Shresha challenged the August 8 order of the Delhi High Court by which it had dismissed his plea seeking an FIR and a CBI probe against Raje and her son.

Shresha, a Rajasthan based lawyer, had moved the high court challenging an April 18, 2015 decision of a special CBI court by which it had refused to order a probe into the allegation against Raje and her son, saying no prior sanction was obtained as required under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The trial court had dismissed the private complaint by a Rajasthan-based lawyer, saying there was no sanction order to prosecute them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to the petitioner lawyer Shresha, Raje was not a public servant at the time of the alleged commission of the offence in 2010 and was Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan legislative assembly.

The petition alleged that Raje and her son had illegally claimed ownership of a 567 sq m piece of land adjoining the Dholpur Palace in Dholpur town and sold it to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for Rs 1.97 crore, causing a loss to the state exchequer.

(With inputs from agencies.)