The High Court of Karnataka on Friday stayed the first information report (FIR) registered against the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy by the Lokayukta’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with alleged misuse of power when he was the Chief Minister in recommending grant of mining lease in favour of a private company.
Justice A.N. Venugopala Gowda passed the interim order while prima facie finding that the FIR registered by the SIT in 2014 was overlapping with an earlier FIR registered by the Lokayukta police in 2011 on the same allegations against Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Both the FIRs were registered on the allegation that Mr. Kumaraswamy had misused his powers as Chief Minister in recommending grant of mining lease in favour of Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals (SSVM).
Hashmath Pasha, counsel for Mr. Kumaraswamy, contended that registration of another FIR on the same allegation was “illegal” as the apex court had declared that there could not be two FIRs for the same set of allegations or offence.
The counsel pointed out that the Special Lokayukta Court, Bengaluru, based on a private complaint by T.J. Abraham, had ordered probe against three former Chief Ministers, including Mr. Kumaraswamy, on allegations levelled against each of them.
The High Court, on a petition filed by Mr. Kumaraswamy in January 2012, though quashed the probe into some other allegations levelled against him, found it fit to continue investigation into the SSVM case.
Notice
However, the SIT registered a separate FIR on SSVM case and recorded Mr. Kumaraswamy’s statement some time ago. Recently, the SIT issued notice to Mr. Kumaraswamy asking him to appear before it for questioning. Following this, Mr. Kumaraswamy had obtained anticipatory bail from the jurisdictional court and appeared before the SIT last week.
The court on Friday, however, made it clear that the probe into the 2011 case could continue.
