The CBI, on Wednesday, booked former Allahabad High Court judge SN Shukla on charges of possessing disproportionate assets to the tune of over ₹2.54 crores.
After registering the FIR against Justice Shukla who was presiding at the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, the CBI carried out searches, including at the premises of other accused Suchita Tiwari, who is his second wife, and brother-in-law Saideen Tiwari in Uttar Pradesh. The agency acted on information that Justice Shukla has “intentionally enriched himself illicitly and acquired assets by corrupt and illegal means in the name of Suchita Tiwari” and Saideen Tiwari, who is the brother of his first wife Kesh Kumari, and others.
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To calculate the disproportionate assets of the judge, the CBI has taken the period of April 1, 2014 to December 6, 2019. In the FIR, the CBI alleged that Suchita came in contact with the judge sometime in 2014-15 and prior to that, she was not having any immovable assets. “During searches, documents from the house of Suchita Tiwari were recovered related to S.N.Shukla, including FDRs of ₹l8 lakhs in the joint name of S.N.Shukla and Suchita Tiwari,” revealed the agency.
Interestingly, Shukla got transferred funds for various purposes from the account of Shiv Shakti Dham Trust, Amethi, UP, for the expenditure of his second wife. The judge’s brother-in-law Saideen transferred ₹10 lakh from his bank account held in an SBI branch in Lucknow at a time of purchase of a flat in the name of Suchita, says the CBI.
Suchita was earlier married to Sandeep Tiwari and was getting ₹40,000 maintenance from him under the Hindu Marriage Act and did not have financial capacity to accumulate huge assets, the CBI observed.
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According to the CBI, during the starting check period of 2014, Suchita merely had ₹277349 but it swelled towards 2019. She had acquired 14 properties, such as flats and agricultural land, which are valued at ₹1.87 crore, said the CBI. While the movable assets, including cash and gold ornaments, amounted to ₹97 lakh.
The CBI also pointed out that Shukla also acquired five assets in the name of Saideen, which were worth ₹1.42 crore. Overall, said the agency, Shukla acquired assets in the Suchita and Saideen to the tune of 2.54 crores.