Supreme Court seeks Centre’s reply on Rs14,500-crore Hudco scam

The Supreme Court (SC) granted four weeks to the Centre on Thursday to file its action taken report, along with the findings of the CBI, on the alleged illegal sanction of loans of over Rs14,500 crore by the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (Hudco) when Ananth Kumar was urban development minister in the NDA government.

Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma passed the order on a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), alleging that the government was trying to hush up the 2004 scam.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Mohan Parasaran, however, sought to rubbish the allegation, saying the CBI inquiry did not find sufficient material to proceed against the accused.

CPIL’s Prashant Bhushan argued that SC had ordered registration of criminal cases against the accused in 2006 on the recommendation of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), but the ministry was still to move.

The loans were allegedly misused by Kumar and a number of Hudco officials and their kith and kin, Bhushan claimed.

He also contested ASG’s contention that the loans had been recovered. Bhushan said recovery of tainted money did not prevent the government from initiating criminal cases against those found
guilty in CVC and CBI investigations.