BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court will pass an order on the petition filed by Nikhil Sosale, marketing and revenue head of Royal Challengers Sports Private Limited, questioning his arrest by city police on Friday.
He claimed he was hurriedly arrested in the morning, with a pre-judged and motivated approach, based only on the directive of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the “immediate arrest” of executives of RCB, without even a perfunctory investigation.
Justice SR Krishna Kumar adjourned the hearing to June 9 to enable the state police to file objections, if any, after hearing arguments of the counsel for the petitioner and prosecution.
Advocate-General K Shashikiran Shetty submitted that the arrest was made by the Station House Officer of Ashok Nagar, who is in-charge of Cubbon Park police station. The accused was arrested at 4.30am Friday at Kempegowda International Airport when attempting to abscond from the country, he argued.
The counsels for Sosale submitted that his arrest was illegal as the FIR was registered by the police inspector of Cubbon Park, who has been suspended by the state government, that too based on the directions of the government.
The FIR cannot be registered without there being any materials. The in-charge police officer cannot arrest the accused and hence the arrest is illegal, the counsels argued.
It was contended that it is clear from the timing of the petitioner’s arrest, which is the result of an oral directive of the chief minister to arrest various RCB officials — that too, without any investigation -- that the petitioner’s arrest is motivated and an attempt to shift the blame of the tragedy to RCSPL and its officials.
It was also stated that the state government had ordered an inquiry to establish facts leading up to the tragedy. It is a matter of record that this investigation is ongoing and yet to be completed.
As such, the facts of how the incident occurred are not yet determined by any competent authority. In these circumstances, the hurried arrest of the petitioner is wholly illegal, arbitrary, and contrary to all known cannons of law.