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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."
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