By IANS
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati won a political and legal victory Tuesday as state governor T.V. Rajeshwar refused to allow the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute her on charges of corruption in an ambitious project to build a shopping mall close to the Taj Mahal when she was in power the last time.
The governor turned down the CBI's request for authorisation, citing lack of evidence. Mayawati was accused of corruption in the multi-million rupee project to develop a real estate corridor along the banks of the Yamuna river near the Taj Mahal in Agra. The project, known as the Taj Corridor project, was conceived in 2002 when she was heading the state government.
The reprieve spurred Mayawati to launch a scathing criticism of the former central government that had moved against her, and twinned it with an attack on the media.
Welcoming the governor's decision, she said the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in New Delhi, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had consciously and deliberately filed a false case on her.
"They had the government in the centre and they used the CBI. It was also one of their men who went to the Supreme Court," Mayawati told a hurriedly called press conference here.
"The BJP anyway tried to malign me, but let me say with all humility and without any rancour or ill-will against anyone in particular that you people in the media also helped in furthering the impression that I had committed a financial irregularity to the tune of Rs.17 billion in the Taj Corridor case," she said.
"Using this media hype, the opposition parties led by the BJP launched a campaign to tarnish my image and paint me as a corrupt person. They tried their best to mislead people by using this false propaganda," said the BSP chief, who last month won the state assembly elections and assumed power.
"I am happy that the more they campaigned against me the more the people put their faith in me," she said, adding: "I don't understand that when the whole project was just worth Rs.1.7 billion how could anyone take away Rs.17 billion."
CBI officials were not available for comment.