Following Thursday’s High Court order granting anticipatory bail to former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy, the Special Lokayukta Court on Friday granted regular bail to the couple who made their appearance before it on Friday.
Appearing on behalf of Mr. Kumaraswamy and his wife, who have been accused of corruption, senior advocate Hasmath Pasha produced a copy of the High Court order, which said that in the event of their arrest, the couple should be released on bail after executing a personal bond for Rs. 50,000 each with a surety for an equal sum.
In accordance with the High Court directive, Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao of the Lokayukta Court accepted the order copy following which the JDS strongman and his wife produced the surety. While accepting the surety, the court asked them to execute a bond stating that they will appear before the same court on September 24 for further proceedings.
“They will have to appear for every hearing from now. This is the condition for every accused...it is normal. If there is any inconvenience, they can take permission of the court to be exempted from a hearing,” Mr. Pasha later told reporters.
Striking a victorious note in response to Friday’s developments, Mr. Pasha said, “On merits alone, ours is a better case compared to the cases pending against other leaders (former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and former Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu). Unlike the cases pending against the others, the accusations levelled against my clients do not attract any criminal sections.”
He said that his client was “merely discharging his official work” in the case where he has been accused making bulk allotment of 80 acres to Vishwabharati House Building Society in 2007. He was just honouring a resolution passed by the Bangalore Development Authority on the basis of a High Court issued directive, Mr. Pasha said.
Meanwhile, advocate M. Vinod Kumar, the complainant in the case, said that he will challenge the decision of the High Court in the Supreme Court.
