A Special Court of Sessions set up exclusively to deal with criminal cases related MPs/ MLAs in Karnataka has directed the Lokayukta police to conduct further investigation against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in an alleged corruption case related to his tenure as Chief Minister during 2013-18.
The court has given six months to complete the probe and submit the final report.
The court passed the order by rejecting the closure report filed by the Lokayukta police on June 6, 2023 after conducting only a preliminary inquiry into the complaint of bribery lodged in 2022 by BJP’s N.R. Ramesh, who is a former city councillor.
‘No proper probe’
“The investigating agency without looking into any other manner about the question whether any corrupt practices were indulged in or not, had furnished the closure report/final report, on the basis of the self-serving statement of accused number-1 [Mr. Siddaramaiah], which is not proper in the eyes of law,” observed Santosh Gajanan Bhat, judge of the Special Court, in his February 21 order.
It was alleged in the complaint that Mr. Siddaramaiah had taken ₹1.3 crore from one L. Vivekananda alias Kings Court Vivek (accused number-2), Managing Director of M/s Vivek Hotels, Mysuru in 2014 to show him the favour of appointing him as a Steward and member of the Managing Committee of the Bangalore Turf Club Ltd. using the power of the State government to nominate members to BTCL’s managing committee.
The complainant had said that though Mr. Siddaramaiah had declared ₹1.3 crore as “loan” taken from Mr. Vivekananda, it was in reality an illegal gratification in the form of quid pro quo to nominate him to the BTCL.
The court noted that the investigation officer, instead of probing the case from different angles, had merely accepted the statement of Mr. Vivekananda that the post of Steward is a mere honorary post, and the written statement sent through the post by Mr. Siddaramaiah claiming that it was a “loan” and not any favour, had filed the closure report by conducting only a preliminary inquiry.
Also, the court noted that the Lokayukta police had given merely a couple of days to the complainant to furnish details and had hastily submitted the closure report without conducting any probe to ascertain the correctness of the claims made by the accused persons.
