NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim relief granted to former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa by which it had asked the Lokayukta police to stay the investigation into allegations of accepting a bribe to get a project for Ramalingam Construction Company Private Limited from Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) against the minister till further orders.
The bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli also issued notice in the senior BJP leader’s plea against the Karnataka High Court’s September 7 order of also restoring the private complaint filed by activist TJ Abraham in the graft case.
“On request of Siddhartha Dave, liberty is granted to implead the state of Karnataka and issue notice to the newly added respondent. Order of stay shall stand extended till further orders,” the apex court said in its order.
While allowing Abraham’s plea who had challenged the lower court’s order of dismissing his private complaint, Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav of Karnataka HC said that the rejection of sanction for prosecution would not come in the way of a continuance of proceedings.
“The rejection of such request is liable to be ignored, as such request was not made either by the police officer or an officer of investigation agency or other law enforcement authorities; nor pursuant to the order of the court as contemplated under the first proviso to Section 19 of the PC Act,” the High Court said.
Exactly one week after the Karnataka High Court’s order, a special court on 14th September referred the private complaint to the Lokayukta police to conduct an investigation into the allegations and submit a final report by November 2, 2022.