The High Court of Karnataka stayed for eight weeks the criminal proceedings pending before a sessions court against Mohammed Nalapad Haris, son of MLA N.A. Haris, in a case of assault on 24-year-old Vidvat at a restaurant in UB City here on February 17.
In another case, the court stayed criminal proceedings pending before a magistrate court against Ravi Belagere, editor of tabloid Hi Bangalore, for allegedly hiring contract killers to eliminate his former colleague Sunil Heggaravalli on the suspicion that the latter had a relationship with Belagere’s second wife.
Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed separate orders on petitions filed by Nalapad and Belagere challenging the legality of the probe and the chargesheet filed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru, which had investigated both these cases. While the High Court stayed the proceedings against Belagere on December 7, proceedings against Nalapad was stayed on December 14.
One of the main contention, among other reasons, raised by both petitioners was that the CCB had no jurisdiction in law to probe the cases against them as the Code of Criminal Procedure does not authorise the CCB as a police station for conducting investigation and filing chargesheet.
In both the cases, the FIRs were registered with the jurisdictional police and the probe was conducted by the police officers attached to the CCB wing of the Bengaluru city police.
