A Special Court in Bengaluru on Thursday said that though “there are some material to refer a complaint for investigation” against Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on the allegation of accepting bribe, it could not order a probe in the absence of sanction for his prosecution as per the law interpreted by the apex court.
B. Jayantha Kumar, judge of the Special Court exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to elected MPs and MLAs in Karnataka, passed the order while dismissing a private complaint filed by Abraham T.J., a social activist and president of the Karnataka Anti-Graft and Environmental Forum, Bengaluru.
“No doubt there are some material to refer the complaint for investigation under section 156 (3) of the Cr. PC. But before proceeding to refer the complaint for investigation...this court has to examine the law laid down by the apex court with regard to requirement of sanction,” the Special Court observed in its order.
However, after analysing the apex court’s judgements, the Special Court came to the conclusion that it could not “refer the complaint for investigation under Section 156 (3) of the Cr. PC against the public servants without a valid sanction from the competent authority under Section 19(1)of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.”
Governor denied sanction
The Special Court also noticed a memo, signed by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), Bengaluru city, submitted by the government’s public prosecutor on June 30, 2021.
Along with the memo, the Dy. SP had produced a photocopy of an order, singed by N. Shivakumar, Under Secretary to Governor (Admin), stating that “the Governor, by an order dated June 23, 2021 had rejected the request of the complainant for sanction for prosecution” of Mr. Yediyurappa.
The complainant had sought a direction from the Special Court to either take cognisance of offences against nine persons, including Mr. Yediyurappa, some of his family members, and Minister S.T. Somashekar, or order investigation into the allegation of they getting a bribe of ₹12.5 crore in relation to a contract given to a private company for a housing project of the Bangalore Development Authority.
Interestingly, Mr. Abraham had stated in his complaint that he had approached the Governor way back on November 20, 2020 seeking sanction for prosecuting Mr. Yediyurappa and Mr. Somashekar. The Governor had not responded to his request for sanction till filing of the complaint on June 4, 2021. He requested the Special Court to treat that there was a “deemed sanction” for prosecution.
Mr. Abraham had pointed to the Special Court that he had lodged a complaint with the ACB on November 25, 2020 against Mr. Yediyurappa and others on these allegations. However, instead of making attempts to get originals of the documents cited by him, the ACB had closed the complaint on December 15, 2020.
It was also alleged in the complainant that Mr. Yediyurappa had abused his office and bribe was received by his family members from the representatives of M/s Ramalingam Construction Company Pvt. Ltd., for resuming a housing project that was stalled.
