Allegations of corruption against ED chief baseless: Govt

The Centre on Friday told the Supreme Court that the allegations of corruption leveled against Enforcement Directorate chief Arun Mathur by a petitioner in the black money case were "baseless".

"All the allegations are baseless. No statement is correct. I verified from the record and found that his house was never searched by the Central Bureau of Intelligence, as alleged by the petitioner," Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said before a bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar, referring to the allegations made against Mathur in a letter written to the prime minister.

The government's reply came after the court in the last hearing sought its response on the two affidavits filed by Jasbir Singh, who is also one of the petitioners along with eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani and former top cop Julio F Riberio in the black money case, in which he questioned the credentials of Mathur and his two associates -- Prabha Kant and S K Sahni.

The court expressed displeasure over Jasbir Singh not disclosing information about himself that he was a serving IPS officer in Uttar Pradesh.

It was pointed out by the government that another petitioner, who is an IAS officer, has not revealed that he was principal secretary in the chief minister's office in Uttar Pradesh. It was also stated that the allegations were leveled against the ED so that the court sets up a special investigative team to probe the black money case.

"It requires that they must disclose information (about them)," the bench said.

Meanwhile, the bench directed IIT Kharagpur Professor S K Dubey to file his affidavit giving details of what transpired between him and Prabha Kant, as it was alleged that the ED officer had threatened him for writing a letter to the prime minister against him and his chief Mathur.

Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the official, submitted that Prabha Kant never threatened the professor.

The bench, after hearing all the sides, asked the city police commissioner to file a status report on the investigation conducted on the complaint of Dubey.