In a day of fast-paced developments on the issue of corruption allegations against Karnataka Lokayukta’s office, an FIR naming Ashwin, Lokayukta Y. Bhaskar Rao’s son, was filed by the Lokayukta police just before the Karnataka High Court intervened in the matter and directed both the Lokayukta and Upalokayukta not to order any in-house investigation.
Passing an interim order on a petition filed by Mr. Ashwin, a Division Bench of the High Court asked the Lokayukat’s office to await the report of the Special Investigating Team (SIT), constituted by the State government, to probe the allegations.
In his petition, Mr. Ashwin had questioned the June 23 order of Upalokayukta Subhash B. Adi, who had ordered Superintendent of Police (Lokayukta) Sonia Narang to investigate into the allegations of corruption within the institution while apprehending that it could be directed against him in view of media reports.
Under the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, the court said, there is no provision that empowers both the Lokayukta and Upalokayukta to investigate the issue in question.
However, just an hour before the court order, the Lokayukta police filed an FIR in the case where, as early as May 2015, an Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department had “orally informed” Ms. Sonia Narang, that he was allegedly threatened by an official claiming to be a joint commissioner by the name of Krishna Rao, and was asked to pay a ransom of Rs. 1 crore.
But it was only on Friday that the Executive Engineer, Krishnamurthy, gave a written statement in which he also claimed that based on media reports and photographs he identified the Lokayukta’s son as the man who called himself Krishna Rao, and had allegedly threatened him, according to officials
Under the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, there is no provision that empowers Lokayukta and Upalokayukta to investigate the issue
Karnataka High Court
