SC Directs Handing over of Asthana’s Viscera to CBI for Examination
The Supreme Court has issued instructions to CBI for taking possession of the viscera samples of Ashutosh Asthana, main accused in the multi-crore PF scandal, who died in Ghaziabad’s Dasna jail in mysterious circumstances.
A special bench of the apex court headed by Justice DK Jain and comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi directed the CBI to send samples to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to find the cause of Asthana’s death.
In addition, the bench instructed that the judicial magistrate who is probing the circumstances resulting in Asthana’s death have to file his report to it within eight weeks.
The Supreme Court also directed the UP police to give enough protection to all the accused and witnessed in the case in which some judges were allegedly involved.
Asthana, a treasury officer at the Ghaziabad court, was arrested in April 2008 in connection with embezzling provident fund of class III and IV employees. He had named, during interrogation, 36 judges of various courts, one of them from the Supreme Court, as alleged beneficiaries of the scandal.
The investigation in the case is being done by CBI under the directions of the apex court.
Those names in the scam include seven Allahabad High Court judges, six retired High Court judges and 12 judges of subordinate judiciary in Uttar Pradesh.
