BENGALURU: Questioning the conduct of the State Government in neither summoning nor securing the accused in the alleged Karnataka Bhovi Development Corporation scam even though a case was registered 20 months ago, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday sought to know why the case should not be handed over to independent investigating agencies such as CBI.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order after hearing the petitions filed by some of the accused to quash the proceedings against them.
The counsels of the accused alleged that four accused have not been summoned for questioning in the past 20 months. They have not even obtained bail for protection from arrest. Despite this, the accused were neither summoned nor secured for investigation, they alleged.
Then the court observed that this was a fit case to be entrusted to an independent investigating agency, considering the slow pace of investigation into the alleged scam of over Rs 100 crore.
The state government has to explain why the investigation should not be handed over to an independent agency. If the state fails to give an explanation on the next date of hearing, the court would be forced to pass orders, the judge said.