New Delhi
The Supreme Court today said BSP chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has to refund to the state exchequer the public money spent on her statues and those of the party’s symbol elephant at parks in Lucknow and Noida.

“Mayawati has to deposit the public money into the state exchequer,” said a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, while hearing a 10-year-old petition by advocate Ravi Kant.

Contending that public money cannot be spent on creating own statues and symbol of one’s political party, Kant alleged that crores were spent during 2008-09 to glorify the then Chief Minister Mayawati. He has also demanded a CBI probe.

Clarifying that it was its tentative view, the Bench posted the case for final hearing on April 2. It turned down a request by senior advocate Satish Mishra, a close aide of the BSP supremo, to post the matter for hearing in May.

The top court had earlier passed interim orders, including those on related environmental issues. It had also asked the Election Commission to cover the elephant statues during polls.

Terming it as arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, the petitioner alleged that the statues were installed at a cost of more than Rs 52 crore by misusing public funds.