The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed petitions filed by five engineers of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) questioning the government’s order handing over the investigation into the multi-crore bogus bill scam to the CID.
Justice L. Narayana Swamy also upheld the jurisdiction of the BMTF, which had originally registered the case in connection with the scam, based on the preliminary inquiry by the echnical and Vigilance Cell under Commissioner of the BBMP.
B.G. Prakash Kumar, executive engineer, Malleswaram division; K. Keera Naik, executive engineer of Rajarajeshwari Nagar division; S. Mallikarjuna Gowda and Ranganath, both assistant executive engineers; and M. Prabhu, assistant engineer, had claimed that the government had no powers to refer the case to the CID. They questioned the jurisdiction of the BMTF to register a case as it was the BMTF, which had registered the cases in the scam. The court, however, refused to accept their contentions.