BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday inferred that the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), Soumendu Mukherjee, is not willing to examine the investigation in the CD case, allegedly involving former minister Ramesh Jarakiholi, conducted by other officers during his absence for about three months.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice N S Sanjay Gowda drew the inference and recorded that the head of SIT is not willing to re-examine the investigation done by other officers as the investigation agency has justified the probe conducted during that period. The court noted that it was brought to its attention that Mukherjee was on leave from April 28 to July 29 this year. Therefore, it asked the counsel whether the SIT head is willing to look into investigation done by other officers to ascertain whether proper probe was carried out.
This was in view of the statement made before the court on June 16, that the SIT chief was unable to supervise the investigation properly and had authorised Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil to prepare reports, the court said.
To this, the SIT counsel stated that the SIT chief wants to stick to the additional statement filed before the court justifying the investigation already done. Questioning the purpose of appointing a senior officer to head the SIT, the court said, “We draw inference that he is not willing to look into investigation carried out by other officers.”
The court also noted that no record was placed before it to show that any other officer was appointed.
Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadagi submitted that the investigation is not vitiated due to the absence of the SIT head.
Meanwhile, the state government, the Commissioner of Police and SIT have contended that the SIT chief had to proceed on medical leave from April 28. He had authorised the Joint Commissioner of Police, Sandeep Patil, to file the status reports before the court.