BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court upheld the discharge of then sub-inspector of Commercial Street Police Station, Gowri Shankar, by a special court in the case registered over the multi-crore I Monitory Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order dismissing the revision petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the discharge order dated July 15, 2024, passed by the Special Court for CBI cases.
The high court said the special court, exercising its jurisdiction, passed an order of discharge by considering the entire spectrum of allegations against the sub-inspector and holds that except a diary noting with an entry ‘Gowri-Vaseem Bhai’ in an excel sheet, nothing else was found against him.
It was alleged that Gowri Shankar, now at Jeevan Bima Nagar police station, demanded and accepted illegal gratification on various occasions from Mohammed Mansoor Khan through Vaseem to favour IMA, for not taking action on various complaints registered against the firm.
The CBI filed a chargesheet against Gowri Shankar under the IPC, Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, 2004, and Prevention of Corruption Act. After filing the chargesheet, arraigning him as accused No.28, he approached the special court to discharge him from the case.
The special court held that there was no evidence to hold him prima facie guilty of the offences. Therefore, CBI moved the high court against the order of discharge, on the ground that the special court discharged the accused though there was abundant material to pin down the sub-inspector.