The Allahabad High Court Wednesday reserved its verdict on a bunch of PILs,seeking quashing of a lower court order quashing the trial of former chief minister Mayawati and her Cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui in the Taj Heritage Corridor case of 2003. The CBI had chargesheet ed Mayawati,Siddiqui,former principal secretary for environment R K Sharma and former environment secretary Rajendra Prasad in 2007 for allegedly siphoning off Rs 175 crore on the pretext of building a corridor around the Taj Mahal and other monuments in Agra. The trial court,however,discharged the accused on the ground that then Governor T V Rajeswar had withheld sanction to prosecute Mayawati and Siddiqui in June 2007. In 2009,three separate PILs were filed in the Lucknow Bench of the High Court against the trial courts order by Kamlesh Verma,Anupama Singh and Qateel Ahmed. While the matter was pending before the court,three more similar PILs were filed in 2011 by Kashi Prasad Yadav,Mamta Singh and Sachindra Pratap Singh. The Supreme Court had ordered a CBI inquiry into Taj Heritage Corridor case in July 2003 on a PIL filed by lawyer Ajay Agrawal. In its report to the Supreme Court,the CBI alleged that the UP government had spent Rs 74 crore on the project but no construction was done and only stones were lying at the site. The CBI had alleged corruption and violation of environment and forest laws. The court then ordered a probe. The CBI filed an FIR against Mayawati,Siddiqui,former principal secretary to CM P L Punia,former principal secretary of Environment R K Sharma and former environment secretary Rajendra Prasad under IPC sections 420,467,468 and 471 and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Punia later turned approver.
