BENGALURU: The Special Court for Lokayukta cases castigated the Lokayukta police for their failure to arrest the prime accused, including a police inspector and two constables, in a corruption case while rejecting anticipatory bail petitions of the other four accused.
The corruption case was registered on April 1, 2025.
A V Kumar, who was inspector at Annapurneshwari Nagar Police Station at the time of the alleged crime, is the first accused and the two constables who were working under him are the second and the fifth accused. The third and fourth accused are Kumar’s relatives. The sixth and seventh accused are the private persons.
“The prima-facie involvement of police officers at higher rank behind the crime in question is forthcoming. It appears that, on the day of the trap, the Lokayukta police having taken other accused persons into custody have set them at liberty on the pretext of giving notice under Section 35(5) of BNSS even without any enquiry”, Judge K M Radhakrishna observed.
Kumar was accused of forcing the complainant, Channegowda K K, a civil contractor, to settle his financial dispute with the sixth accused for Rs 27.50 lakh under the threat of opening a rowdy sheet and sending him to jail.
Kumar forced the complainant to sell his house worth Rs 3.50 crore at Srigandhada Kaval for Rs 2.05 crore in the name of his relative, Gavigowda, the third accused, on his behalf. Having forcefully taken the complainant’s bank account number he got transferred Rs 4,00,500 from Gavigowda’s bank account.
Later, Kumar got executed an agreement of sale, threatening to fix the complainant and his wife in criminal cases unless they execute the sale deed as he directed. Rejecting the anticipatory bail applications of Somashekar Aradhya, A V Dinesh, Koushik S and Uttam N, the special court quoted the arguments of the public prosecutor that the police inspector and other accused persons are not cooperating with the investigating agency despite serving of notices.