BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Friday quashed proceedings initiated against Deputy Director Manoj Mittal and Assistant Director Murali Kannan of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) based on a police complaint filed by B Kallesh, Additional Director, Social Welfare Department, accusing them of forcing him to name CM Siddaramaiah and others in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scam.
Justice M Nagaprasanna quashed the crime as well as the proceedings against them after taking note of a memo filed by the counsel of Kallesh, which stated that he didn’t want to pursue the matter.
On July 23, after hearing a petition filed by the two ED officials questioning the legality of the crime, the court stayed further investigation of the crime and orally observed that no officers will be safe and they will not perform their duties if a complaint was filed against them for discharging their duties.
The ED had registered a case against the officials of the corporation and the Union Bank of India under Section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. It had issued summons to Kallesh and recorded his statement.
After this, a search and seizure operation was conducted at his office, which brought out incriminating materials disclosing the involvement of several officials.
After the operation, Kallesh filed a police complaint against the two ED officials, accusing them of criminal intimidation and breach of trust.