The Karnataka High Court on Monday ordered issue of notice to the State government on a PIL petition seeking a direction to submit final report on a criminal case registered on alleged corruption in providing preferential facilities to V.K. Sasikala in violation of prison rules when she was undergoing sentence in corruption case against former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order on the petition filed by K.S. Gita, a 65-year-old social worker and an educationist from Chennai.
The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that a retired IAS officer, Vinay Kumar, had conducted an inquiry and submitted a 295-page report with several findings on the allegations of preferential treatment to Ms. Sasikala and her sister-in-law, Ilavarasi, who was also undergoing sentence in the prison in the same case.
The petitioner contended that a criminal case related to alleged corruption in the Bengaluru Central Prison for providing preferential treatment to Ms. Sasikala and Ms. Ilavarasi was registered but no final report on the probe was submitted so far.
However, the Bench asked the petitioner’s advocate whether any First Information Report was registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, in connection with the case as the petition did not mention crime number. It is not possible to consider the prayer made in the petition to submit the final report based on the investigation sans registration of a FIR, the Bench observed orally. Following this, the advocate said he would find out the registration number of the criminal case and submit it to the court.
The Bench adjourned further hearing till April 22.
