The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed for four weeks the investigation and further proceedings before the Special Lokayukta Court in connection with the criminal case related to corruption and fraud in the implementation of Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor Project (BMICP).
Justice H. Billappa passed this interim order while hearing petitions by Ashok Kheny, Managing Director of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is executing the project, and others.
They had challenged the October 25 order of the Special Lokayukta Court, which had directed the Lokayukta to conduct investigation into the complaint of corruption and fraud in executing the BMICP by NICE, its allied firms, former and present officials of the State government.
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Meanwhile, the High Court has also stayed the interim order of the Special Lokayukta Court attaching the toll collected by the NICE for the past two years after it constructed a peripheral right road as part of BMICP and attachment of some land sold by NICE and its allied firms.
The Special Lokayukta Court had passed the orders on a private complaint lodged by T.J. Abraham.
The former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who is the prime accused in the case before the Special Lokayukta Court, however had filed an application for allowing investigation.
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Stay extended
Observing that trees are as important as roads and there will be environment sans trees, the High Court on Tuesday extended till January 15 the stay on felling of 4,153 trees for widening various roads as part of Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project in Tumkur division.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna passed the orders while hearing a PIL petition initiated suo motu by the court based on a letter by G.T. Arun Kumar, a resident of Tumkur to the Chief Justice on June 5.