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http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-25/lucknow/33384640_1_afzal-siddiqui-n-k-mehrotra-lokayukta-justice

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• Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: UP Lokayukta Justice (retd) N K Mehrotra on Friday recommended CBI and ED inquiry against leader of opposition and prominent BSP leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui after finding charges of disproportionate assets against him, his son and brother to be true. The Lokayukta has written to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav in this connection.

The fact-finding by Lokayukta also holds minister guilty of 'misusing' his office for issuing mining lease during his tenure in the former BSP government. The mining leases were handed over to benefit six companies of his son Afzal Siddiqui.

This is the second complaint in which the Lokayukta has recommended a CBI inquiry against Siddiqui to the SP government. In the first case in which similar charges of disproportionate assets were levelled in Barabanki and Lucknow, the government has yet not acted. This time, the complaint against the minister was filed by Ashish Sagar Dixit, a resident of Banda. The man had not only accused Siddiqui of holding disproportionate assets, but also illegally encroaching over the Nazul land in Banda and Amroha districts.

The Lokayukta probe found the charges to be true and recommended an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the minister, his son and brother Zameerudding Siddiqui. The inquiry has also been recommended against the six companies of the minister's son, which have received financial gains by way of unauthorized mining leases. "The companies did no business as such but there was lot of transfer of shares which took place," said the Lokayukta.

Infact, Afzal Siddiqui has himself informed the Lokayukta that his income for three years, the time since he started filing returns, was Rs 56 lakh while his expenditure was more than Rs 1 crore. For one of the food processing companies in Amroha, they had acquired three plots only on the basis of affidavits, said the Lokayukta. The companies got lot of unsecured loans, which private companies can not get, and had lot of banking transactions.

The Lokayukta had recommended a CBI inquiry against the minister earlier also. The charges of almost similar nature were levelled by complainant Jagdish Narain Shukla against the minister. The recommendations were made to then chief minister Mayawati. While Mayawatihad acted on Lokayukta's recommendations against many of her ministers, in case of Siddiqui, she maintained a stoic silence.

But what is beyond understanding is that even the SP government has not acted on the recommendations. Though SP swept to power in March, closely after that Lokayukta had sent the recommendation to the government for a re-think, the government till date hasn't made up its mind on the recommendation. Will it act this time is a matter of speculation now.

It isn't that the government has not acted on the recommendations of the Lokayukta before. In case of Ayodhya Prasad Pal, sports minister in Mayawati government, who was found guilty of misusing his office and acquiring disproportionate assets, government ordered a vigilance probe on the recommendations of the Lokayukta in July. Why it did not react in the case of Siddiqui is, therefore, questionable.

Reacting to the recommendations of the Lokayukta, Siddiqui told reporters that the recommendation has come because BSP objected to the extension given to the Lokayukta.