The former Deputy Chief Minister R. Ashok of the BJP on Thursday moved the High Court of Karnataka questioning legality of registration of a first information report (FIR) against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on alleged irregularities in regularisation of unauthorised occupation of government land during 1998–2007.
It has been claimed in the his petition that the allegations in the complaint, filed by A. Anand on January 3, 2018, were false and vexatious, and were “engineered by the ruling Congress party in the State with ulterior motives and for extraneous considerations”.
Pointing out he had discharged his duties as the chairman of the Committee on Regularisation of Unauthorised Occupation of Government Lands for Bangalore South taluk in his capacity as an MLA, Mr. Ashok also said that decisions were taken by the committee based on the records furnished by officials and not by the petitioner.
Also, it has been claimed in the petition that the complaint has not arraigned as accused three members of the committee who hailed from the Congress, which was in power during the said period, but all the blame is put only on the petitioner.
'Saleem already filed complaint'
Mr. Ashok also pointed out that M.A Saleem, member of the Pradesh Youth Congress Committee, had lodged a complaint on the issue before the ACB on November 9, 2017 and the said complaint was also singled by the present complainant.
However, the ACB had not taken any action then, it was pointed out in the petition while questioning the swiftness with which the ACB had acted on the present complaint by conducting the so-called preliminary inquiry within three days, registering the FIR on January 8, and arresting three officials for their actions dated about 15 to 20 years ago. It was also pointed out in the petition that a similar complaint, filed by T.R. Srinivas, president, Bangalore Metropolitan District Congress Committee, before the Karnataka Lokayukta on May 27, 20013 was still pending.
The petition is likely to come up for hearing before the court next week.
