A PIL has been filed in the Bombay high court against two members of Team Anna, Prashant Bhushan and Arvind Kejriwal, along with 14 Union ministers, including Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The petitioner has demanded that instead of levelling allegations on a public forum, the high court should intervene and force Team Anna to hand over what evidence it has against the ministers for investigation.
Petitioner Hemant Patil, who filed the PIL, has pleaded that Team Anna should lodge a complaint in the proper forum such as the high court.
“They should file a case and give the evidence to the court of law rather than taking up the issue on a public forum and threatening to agitate in public, thus causing inconvenience to everyone. It is equally wrong to demand from the Union government a special investigation team to launch an inquiry,” said advocate R.V. Kachave, counsel for the petitioner.
The petition has been filed in the background of Mr Kejriwal making allegations of corruption against several high-ranking ministers that include the PM, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P. Chidambaram and ministers from Maharashtra such as Sharad Pawar, Sushilkumar Shinde
and Vilasrao Deshmukh, etc.
The team, which has submitted details of their allegations to UPA president Sonia Gandhi have also demanded a special investigation at the earliest along with a threat to take the agitation to the public on July 25.
Apart from members of Team Anna and the ministers, the PIL has also made the Union of India, government of Maharashtra, Central Bureau of Investigation and Election Commission of India party to the petition, and sought a ban on contesting elections for ministers against whom allegations have been levelled till their names are cleared.