BENGALURU: Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanath Shetty has dismissed a complaint against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his cabinet colleagues. The complainant had alleged that police officers are transferred as per the ‘whims and fancies of politicians’ though a Police Establishment Board was constituted to decide on the transfers, postings and other service matters of the personnel.
This was the third time.V Shashidhar (54), president of the Akhila Karnataka Police Maha Sangha and a resident of Yelahanka, had filed a complaint regarding the same issue.
Shashidhar first filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) seeking a probe into transfer of police officers to places of their choice based on recommendation letters issued by elected representatives. But ACB issued an endorsement on November 21, 2016 stating that the complaint does not fall within the ambit of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
He then filed a petition before the High Court for quashing the ACB endorsement and also seeking directions to the state government to appoint a Special Investigation Team to probe alleged misconduct of the Chief Secretary, DG&IGP, ACB and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
While disposing of the petition on February 1, Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri had said the petitioner could examine the advisability of filing the complaint before the Lokayukta.
Accordingly, Shashidhar filed a complaint before the Lokayukta. The Lokayukta enquiry officer said, “...Shashidhar is not personally aggrieved by the action of the respondents. Having failed to persuade the court to entertain the grievance and give relief, he cannot be permitted to reagitate the same grievance before Lokayukta. Clause (d) of Schedule II of Section 8(1) (a) of Karnataka Lokayukta Act clearly bars entertaining such complaints.”