The complaint filed against the former Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income was withdrawn on Wednesday after the Karnataka High Court orally indicated that the complaint does not survive without prior sanction for prosecution.
Justice K.N. Keshavanarayana disposed of the petitions filed by Mr. Eshwarappa and his family members after counsel for the complainant B. Vinod filed a memo withdrawing the complaint. Mr. Eshwarappa and others had questioned initiation of criminal proceedings by the Special Lokayukta Court in Shimoga during December 2012. Acting on a private complaint by Mr. Vinod, the Special Court had directed the Lokayukta Police to register an FIR and submit a report to the court. Following this order, the Lokayukta Police had raided residential and other premises belonging to Mr. Eshwarappa and family members.
Stayed
The High Court on Wednesday stayed the August 6 notification of the Revenue Department dissolving the managing committee of Sri Cheluvanarayanaswamy temple at Melkote in Mandya district for the reason that the committee did not take action with regard to alleged irregularities by temple’s chief priest.
Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the interim order on a petition file by committee chairman H.K. Ramesh Raju and its member. They claimed that the committee was constituted in 2012 and it was not responsible for the alleged irregularities committed during 2008–09 while pointing out that the chief priest, Narasaraja Bhattar, was kept under suspension after certain allegations were made against him pending legal proceedings.Petitioners also claimed that the government had no jurisdiction to dissolve the committee as such power was conferred only to the State Dharmika Parishat.
