Bengaluru: The former lokayukta and chief justice of Karnataka high court Justice Bhaskar Rao was on Wednesday chargesheeted in the alleged multi-crore corruption scandal in the Lokayukta.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing the corruption scandal submitted the chargesheet in the First Information Report (FIR) 56/2015 before the Special Lokayukta court on Wednesday, naming Justice Rao as accused number seven and charged him under Sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and Sections 119 (concealment by design by a public servant), 120 (criminal conspiracy) r/w 36, 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) and 217 (a public servant disobeying direction of law with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture) among others of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) Kamal Pant, who is heading the SIT told Deccan Chronicle that the investigation in the “complex” and “sensitive” case was an “immense challenge” and the credit goes to his team of officers, which meticulously worked and cracked the case and produced “prosecutable evidence” before the courts.
Regarding the challenges that the SIT had faced during investigation, he said that the biggest difficulty was that the case was given to the team after a delay of two months since the registration of the FIR.
“The accused, most of who were then influential had managed to cover the tracks. Things started shaping up after they were arrested. We had to reconstruct the case based on scientific evidence. More than 60 statements; of the accused, their aides, complainants and bureaucrats, who were approached for bribe, were recorded before the judicial magistrate,” Pant said.
He added that the SIT had to insulate themselves from the hype and sensation, which initially surrounded the case. “There were speculations that the team will not be able to deliver justice. We had to keep up our morale. The biggest turning point for the SIT was when the courts, including the Supreme Court rejected the bail applications of the accused,” said the SIT chief.
He gave the credit to his team of officers - IGP, Intelligence Soumendu Mukherjee, SP, Anti Corruption Bureau Labhuram, Deputy Superintendents of Police Raghavendra Hegde, Simon and Inspector Balraj and the prosecution counsel in the Supreme Court - Joseph Aristotle and Siddharth Luthra. “The credit goes to them and the government, which supported the SIT” he added.
Ashwin case: judge recuses
A Karnataka High Court judge on Wednesday recused himself from hearing the petitions filed by former Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao’s son Ashwin Rao alias Ashwin Yarabatti, Syed Riyazatullah and others seeking bail. Justice L. Narayana Swamy, who recused himself, has ordered to place the matters before Chief Justice, for further orders.
All the accused had approached the high court seeking bail after the
Supreme Court had set aside an earlier order of Karnataka High Court granting bail to four people accused of using the offices of state Lokayukta to carry out extortion activities. The SC had set aside the order observing that since chargesheet has been filed, the accused are at liberty to move the lower court for grant of regular bail.
The SC had on September 16, 2015, stayed the execution of the order of the Karnataka High Court granting bail to the accused. The SIT had filed chargesheet against six people, including former Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao's son Ashwin Rao alias Ashwin Yarabatti. The chargesheet was filed in an extortion case registered by the SIT on the basis of a complaint lodged by government engineer M.N. Krishnamurthy, who had alleged that he was asked to pay Rs 1 crore by the accused persons to prevent a raid by the Lokayukta police.
