The High Court of Karnataka has rejected for the second time the plea for bail filed by former Minister Vinay R. Kulkarni in the murder of a BJP leader, while observing that “if Mr. Kulkarni is is released on bail, he will certainly tamper with all the witnesses and obstruct the fair trial against him”.
The court said he is not entitled to be enlarged in bail going by his past conduct of “tampering of the witnesses, influencing the police officer, changing the public prosecutor, diverting the police and investigation by ensuring surrendering of some other persons as culprits, threatening the wife of the deceased... and paying ₹20 lakh to her besides assuring her a post in the Congress party...”
Justice K. Natarajan made these observations in the order of dismissing Mr. Kulkarni’s bail petition. He was arrested by the CBI last year in the case of murder of Yogishgouda Goudar, a zilla panchayat member in Dharwad representing the BJP.
“The investigation also revealed that the petitioner by using his influence as district in charge Minister interfered with the investigation. He paid ₹2 lakh to the investigating officer for tampering the witnesses and to file false chargesheet against accused number one to six, and also not to investigate the matter effectively,” the court noted from material produced by the CBI.
