The High Court of Karnataka on Monday refused anticipatory bail to five engineers of the BBMP in connection with the presence of more than 1,000 official files relating to Rs. 120 crore work contracts in the house of an MLA’s wife recently.
Justice A.V. Chandra-shekara passed the order while dismissing petitions filed by Executive Engineer Ideya Vendan R. and engineers B.S Prasad, I.K. Vishwas and M. Nagaraj.
However, the court granted anticipatory bail to Shailaja S.M., a BBMP employee who claimed that she was at the house on the instructions of her superior, but asked her to surrender to the Lokayukta police by March 31.
Observing that the probe is at nascent stage, the court found merit in the submission of the Lokayukta police that the incident could be the “tip of an iceberg” requiring serious interrogation of all the suspects. Finding such a large number of official files at a private residence is “unnatural,” the court observed. The files were found at the house of Congress MLA Munirathna Naidu’s wife at Vyalikaval on December 27, 2014 when the Lokayukta police raided the premises based on a complaint by Brashtachara Virodhi Vedike.
They found around 1,000 files, computers and seals of the BBMP in the house. The accused officials and the MLA claimed that the files were taken to the house, which is located 6-km away from BBMP’s Rajarajeshwa-rinagar zonal office, for photocopying in connection with replies to queries under RTI Act.
The Lokayukta police told the court that no photocopying machine was found in the house.
