Parole application of Asthana's mother, wife rejected

The district court has rejected the parole application of mother and wife of Ashutosh Asthana, prime accused in the multi-crore PF scam, who died mysteriously in Dasna jail here last week.

Asthana's mother Savitri and wife Sushma are co-accused in alleged siphoning off of Rs23 crore provident fund of class III and IV employees in which names of a number of 36 judges from various courts, including one from the Supreme Court, had figured. They are lodged in the district jail since April 2008.

Special judge Rajbeer Sharma while rejecting the application said that the parole application is subject to pendency of their bail application which is yet to be decided. The women had demanded a parole for six months on the account of ill-health of Sushma and various rituals which have to be followed after Ashthana's death.

Superintendent of the jail VK Singh told PTI that he had recommended their parole for three months on humanitarian grounds. Sushma later said she plans to move the High Court for her parole application.

Meanwhile, DM Ramesh Kumar told PTI that he, along with District Judge Vishnu Chand Gupta and SSP Akhil Kumar, visited the district jail yesterday and interrogated inmates regarding 43-year-old Asthana's death.

District judge Gupta, after the visit, said he will send his report to the high court and chief judicial magistrate OA Ojha has been assigned the judicial probe in the incident as Asthana was in judicial custody at the time of his death.