Bombay High Court dismisses plea seeking CBI, ED probe on assets of Uddhav Thackeray

In a significant development, the Bombay High Court has rejected a PIL seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the alleged disproportionate assets of former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his family.

The court also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 crore to the petitioner, Gauri Bhide, a behaviour and soft skill consultant.

A division bench of the Bombay High Court comprising Justice Dheeraj Thakur and Justice Valmiki Sa Menezes rejected the demand for a CBI and ED probe, saying that the petitioner was seeking a “roving enquiry”.

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Bhide has made Thackeray, who leads a group of Shiv Sena, his wife Rashmi, and their two sons Aaditya, the Yuva Sena president and former minister, and Tejas, a conservationist and naturalist, as respondents.

Senior counsels Aspi Chinoy and Ashok Mundargi represented the Thackeray family.

In the PIL filed last year, Bhide had stated that she was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “fight against corruption” and claimed she had evidence to show that the Thackeray family “has accumulated properties and assets illegally” - and hence a thorough investigation by CBI and ED is needed.

Reacting to the court order, Thackeray-group MLA Sunil Prabhu said: “Truth wins, I can’t say anything more than this.”

"The petition has alleged that Thackeray and his family never disclosed any particular service, profession, and 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," she stated and referred to the investigations by central agencies against people close to the Thackeray family.

"It seems it is a clear case of turning the black money into white one," the PIL alleged.