Karnataka Lokayukta corruption case: Bhaskar in custody till August 17

BENGALURU: The Lokayukta Special Court has remanded V Bhaskar, the accused in the Lokayukta corruption case, in Special Investigation Team (SIT) custody for 12 days, till August 17. Meanwhile, the police custody of the prime accused and Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao’s son Ashwin Yerabati has been extended till Friday evening.

The SIT officials produced V Bhaskar, alias 420 Bhaskar, who was arrested from Le Meridian Hotel on Wednesday, before the court on Thursday morning. To a query by Judge V.G. Bopaiah, Bhaskar said he was arrested from Le Meridian Hotel around 12 noon on Wednesday. “I was taken to the Bowring Hospital for medical check-up, around 9 pm. They (SIT staff) are treating me well and are giving me food in time.”

Later, the prosecution sought his police custody for 14 days. “As the SIT needs to get information from Bhaskar, they need his custody. Importantly, they need to extract how many associates he had and how many public servants he had extorted,” Special Public Prosecutor K Janardhan told the court.

Objection to this, Bhaskar’s counsel argued that the SIT officials have already seized several documents from places belonging to the other accused and they have already questioned them. “When they have got almost all information, it will be a harsh punishment to my client if he is remanded for more than five days in police custody. Moreover, my client’s business was restricted to only Bengaluru and Kolar, so there is no necessity for SIT to take to far places. He is cooperating with the SIT officials as well and the court should consider this,” the counsel submitted.

Then the judge asked the Chief Investigating Officer Labhu Ram that if it was enough if Bhaskar is remanded in their custody for nine days till August 14. Labhu Ram requested they needed at least 12 days and the Judge remanded Bhaskar in police custody till August 17.

Ashwin Rao produced in the Lokayukta court for their alleged involvement in the extortion case in Bengaluru on Thursday (Photo: Satish.B)

Meanwhile, the SIT also produced Ashwin before the court, as his police custody ended on Thursday. They requested the court to extend his custody for four days. “The SIT has collected several evidences against him and the witnesses in Hyderabad have also made statements against him. Now that, another accused in the case Bhaskar has been arrested, the investigators need to make both the accused confront each other and question them,” the SPP submitted.

However, Ashwin’s counsel Sandeep Patil argued that the SIT had already got 10 days custody of his client and an accused can not be remanded to police custody for 15 days altogether. “As the prosecution said, the SIT needs to confront both the accused, and how much time to they require for that when they have already completed the interrogation of my client?” he submitted.
The judge intervened and said the investigating agency should unearth the matrix of allegations, and extended the police custody of Ashwin for one more day. The judge directed the police to produce him before the court at 4.30 pm on Friday.

Ashwin’s counsel made a request that the investigation should confine only to the case filed by P.B. Channabasappa, for which the SPP told that the Lokayukta corruption case had a larger conspiracy and several ramifications, and the police needs to probe that. The Judge told that the investigating officer had the right to question an accused when he is involved in other cases.