In a temporary relief to the State government, the High Court of Karnataka on Saturday said that as of today there was no need to consider a plea for transfer of the investigation into the alleged CD scandal involving the former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi to any other agency.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj made these observation in its order after going through the report submitted in a sealed cover to the court by IPS officer Soumendu Mukherjee, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the government to probe into the scandal.
“We find that as of today it is not necessary to consider the plea for transfer of investigation,” the Bench observed while hearing the two PIL petitions filed by Geetha Misra, a social activist, and S. Umesh, a city-based advocate.
When it was pointed out by a counsel of a petitioner that the SIT had not questioned Mr. Jarkiholi while alleging that he was avoiding probe in the guise of being treated for COVID-19, the Bench told the advocate that he was not privy to what has been stated in that regard by the SIT in its report.
The Bench noted that the SIT was conducting investigation based on the three first information reports registered in connection with the scandal.
While validity of setting up of the SIT by the State government and non-registration of the FIR when social activist Dinesh Kallahalli lodged a complaint on the CD scandal before withdrawing it subsequently were questioned in Ms. Misra’s petition, the petition by Mr. Umesh had sought a court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation or other independent investigation team and direction to the police and the media to adhere to guidelines of the apex court on investigation of criminal cases.
