BENGALURU: The High Court has dismissed the bail petition of one of the accused in the Lokayukta extortion and corruption scam.
Justice A V Chandrashekara dismissed the bail petition of Mohammed Sadiq Basha (45), a resident of Palace Guttahalli.
Justice Chandrashekara said that though the offences are neither punishable with death nor imprisonment for life, and are exclusively triable by the Sessions Court, one cannot forget that offences of this nature are severe and the entire community will be aggrieved if they are not brought to light.
“Sadiq’s involvement is in no way lesser than the others’. The allegations against him are that he had made attempts to extort money from public servants and this was going on for several months. This court is of the opinion that this is not a fit case to exercise the jurisdiction under Section 439 CrPC. Accordingly, the petition is dismissed,” Justice Chandrashekar said in his order of December 17.
The allegations against Sadiq are that he introduced Umashankar, Chief Engineer in KSHDCL, against whom a case of corruption is pending before the Lokayukta, to another accused, and he is said to have acted as a broker.
“As rightly pointed out by the Special Public Prosecutor C H Jadhav, the material collected by the SIT till now prima facie indicate that Sadiq, in furtherance of the conspiracy hatched with others, had converted the office of the Lokayukta, an institution to combat corruption, into an office of corruption and extortion,” Justice Chandrashekar said.
Jadhav argued that great disrepute has been brought to the institution and its credibility severely damaged. He also submitted that though a chargesheet has been filed, the case is still under investigation.
Sadiq has been in judicial custody since August 16. His counsel argued that prima facie Sections 8 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act do not apply to the facts of this case.