Bombay High Court dismisses PIL seeking 'DA probe' against Uddhav Thackeray, kin

The Bombay High Courton Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a disproportionate assets case against former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his family observing that the petitioner was seeking a roving enquiryThe PIL filed by city resident Gauri Bhide who claims to be a behaviour and soft skill consultant sought the courts direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI and Enforcement Directorate ED to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation against the exCM and his familyCalling herself a sincere and vigilant citizen the petitioner said she wanted to help the Government of India unearthing some more hidden unaccounted wealth disproportionate to income and also unearth laundered moneyA division bench of Justices Dheeraj Thakur and Valmiki Menezes rejected the plea saying the petitioner was seeking a roving enquiryThe plea stated Bhide was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modis fight against corruption and claimed she had evidence to show that the Thackeray family has accumulated properties and assets illegallyAlso Read Man dupes top company official after promising sponsorship to SA cricketer heldIt alleged that Uddhav Thackeray and his family never disclosed any particular service profession or business as their official source of income Yet we find they have huge properties in a metro city like Mumbai and in Raigad district which may run into crores said the PILCiting raids CBI and ED raids on people who are very very close to the Thackeray family the PIL claimed that the Thackerays have links with huge undisclosed properties cash and other wealthWhen print media incurred heavy losses during the Covidinduced lockdown Thackerays Prabodhan Prakashan Pvt Ltd showed brilliant performance of Rs 42 crore turnover and Rs 115 crore profit said petitioner Bhide who also claimed that her family owned a printing press in Dadar in central MumbaiAt the time Uddhav Thackeray was the CM and his son Aaditya Thackeray was a cabinet minister the plea saidAppearing for the Thackerays senior counsels Aspi Chinoy and Ashok Mundargi argued that the PIL had been filed on assumptions and without any factual foundationThe petition is absolutely bereft of any material and is filed purely on assumptions The petitioner has an alternate remedy of filing a private complaint before a magistrates court seeking police probe Chinoy had arguedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever