Agni Sridhar: Why did Sonia Narang not ‘trap’ the accused?

BENGALURU: Writer – activist Agni Sridhar sprang a surprise by questioning the way in which the corruption charges case was handled by the Lokayukta police wing, before it was stayed by the High Court. Highlighting the turn of events from May 5 until July 1, when an FIR was registered by the Lokayukta police with the date of offence as May 4, Sridhar questioned why SP Sonia Narang did not script a “trap” methodology, which was a standard operating procedure of Lokayukta, when the PWD engineer Krishnamurthy approached her with the bribe demand complaint.

He is also wondered why the SP Lokayukta or the authorities took more than two weeks to act on a highly explosive complaint and file an FIR on July 1 even as a writ petition hearing was underway at the High Court.

Sridhar told Deccan Chronicle, “Sonia Narang is answerable to all these questions. When Krishnamurthy approached her with an oral complaint of the bribe demand, being the head of the police wing of Lokayukta she should have followed the standard operating procedure of having the culprit “trapped” by offering the said bribe. That’s what Lokayukta does, but why did she not choose that method?”

“The ulterior motive is to ridicule the institution of Lokayukta, so that there are few sharks that are trying to buy time for escaping from cases they have been prosecuted by the Lokayukta, as it takes time for the institution to recuperate from its damaged image. To me it looks like a well planned strategy of destabilising the Lokayukta by both Justice Subash Adi and Sonia Narang,” Sridhar added.