NEW DELHI: A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI or SIT probe into an alleged honey-trap scandal in Karnataka involving a senior minister, and 48 others including legislators, and judges.
Lawyer Varun Kumar Sinha mentioned the matter before a Supreme Court bench led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, who said it would be listed for hearing tomorrow.
Raising the issue of honey trap in the Karnataka Legislative assembly, its State Cooperation Minister, K N Rajanna said, he had been targeted at a recent honey-trap attempt and as many as 48 leaders from all parties had been targeted.
The PIL filed by author, Binay Kumar Singh, through his lawyer, Sinha, sought that a direction be made for an investigation by an independent agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation or a SIT, comprising of police officers of integrity and who are not subject to control or influence of the State of Karnataka, and report be submitted to the Apex Court.
Singh further sought that the investigation be monitored by the top court or by a monitoring committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge. The monitoring committee should also inquire into the role played by all authorities who directly or indirectly benefitted from the incident.
Petitioner Singh argued that serious allegations were made in the Karnataka Assembly, claiming that a chief ministerial aspirant had successfully honey-trapped several individuals, including judges.
"The allegations have been made by a sitting minister who has claimed himself to be a victim, thereby lending credibility to the serious allegations. Not only that, another minister of the government has not only echoed the allegations made by the first minister, rather alleged that the scale and proportion of the scandal is at least ten times than what is currently visible," the plea said.
The petitioner submitted that judges getting compromised by means like honey trapping poses a serious threat to judicial independence and gravely undermines public confidence in the institution.
"Much murmurings have already been caused by multiple media reports and social media. In this backdrop, it is imperative that this court steps in to salvage the reputation and public confidence in the judicial system of the country," the plea said.
