Lucknow, May 5 (IANS): The Samajwadi Party (SP) government had paid a whopping Rs 21.15 lakh to different senior lawyers of the Supreme Court to avoid CBI enquiry against tainted Noida Chief Engineer Yadav Singh, accused of amassing crores of rupees through illegal activities.

This fact was revealed through an information obtained by RTI activist Nutan Thakur. She had filed a PIL in which Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had directed the Yadav Singh case to be transferred to CBI.

The Uttar Pradesh government had appealed against this order before the Supreme Court which was dismissed during the first hearing itself on July 16, 2015, but the Akhilesh Yadav government had left no stone unturned to avoid the CBI enquiry.

As per the RTI information dated May 4, 2017 provided by Surendra Pal Singh, Special Secretary, Nyay Anubhag-1, four senior lawyers were engaged by the State government in this case.

Of these, Kapil Sibbal was given a fee of Rs 8.80 lakh, Harish Salve was given Rs 5.00 lakh, Rakesh Dwivedi was given Rs 4.05 lakh and Dinesh Dwivedi was given Rs 3.30 lakh.

The RTI applicant said it was truly alarming that the state government had wasted such huge money to save a tainted person like Yadav Singh and sought recovery of this public money from the pocket of the concerned public authorities. Singh is currently in jail and is being probed by the CBI And the Enforcement Directorate (ED).