Author: Agencies
Publication: The Times of India
Dated: January 20, 2007
The Supreme Court on Friday took to task
the Centre and the CBI for failing to arrive at a conclusive
finding on the nationality of controversial Congress MP from Assam Mani Kumar
Subba.
The court was anguished that the CBI gave
pre-dominance to the "highly suspicious" documents and affidavits
filed by the Lok Sabha member from Tezpur for contesting the elections
while investigating the issue and not putting the onus on him to prove
his nationality.
A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan
and Justice D K Jain took strong exception to the agency not placing on record
documents relating to Subba's birth certificate, school certificate, etc.
The bench was perturbed by the fact that the
CBI, in its report, only said, "There is nothing to establish that he
is a Nepalese citizen." The bench said, "Prima facie, there are
serious allegations and we have to take serious view The CBI is not proceeding
in the right direction."
The court was hearing a PIL filed by Noida
resident Birendra Nath Singh, who had alleged that the lottery baron from
Assam was a Nepalese citizen and had escaped to India after a criminal case
of murder was registered against him in early 1970s.
The bench was not impressed with the
arguments of additional solicitor general Gopal Subramanian and senior
advocate Abishekh Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress MP that the CBI
had gone into the depth of the matter with the Nepalese government and even
took help of Interpol. They that it was a witch-hunt aimed at maligning Subha.
Irked by the arguments, the Supreme Court told the ASG, "First find out
what is in India. Then go to Nepal." It also sought to know if the CBI
questioned Subba.
"Subha has to prove his nationality.
He has to prove his credentials," the bench said when the ASG tried to
convince it that the allegations against the MP were not true as he was
born in a village in Darjeeling district in West Bengal from where his family
had migrated to Sikkim then to Assam.
Maintaining that Subha was holding a responsible
position, the bench said he should where he was born as everything on
his citizenship "highly suspicious."
