BENGALURU: Observing that granting approval for setting the criminal law in motion cannot be a frolicsome act, as done by the State, the Karnataka High Court quashed the order granting permission to conduct an investigation against senior KAS officer Shreeroopa. The court said it does not bear any semblance of application of mind.
Shreeroopa, then Deputy Secretary-2 of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) was charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act, for executing a sale deed in favour of an allottee, in terms of the resolution passed by the BDA during her predecessor’s period, a decade ago.
Allowing the petition filed by Shreeroopa, challenging the order passed by the state government on April 21, 2022, Justice M Nagaprasanna said the order in question does not bear any application of mind and would lose its legal legs to stand on. As a result, it would be obliterated. He quashed the FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), as the stay granted to the order in question was not informed to the investigating agency.
As per the BDA resolution dated October 5, 2007, the lease-cum-sale agreement was executed on June 26, 2009. After about 10 years, a sale deed is executed by the BDA in furtherance of lease-cum-sale agreement. This triggered the registration of a complaint by one M Narayanaswamy to the Special Task Force, BDA, in November 2021, alleging that all the family members of Hanumamma have been granted a site, contrary to their entitlement.