BENGALURU: The Special Court directed the Lokayukta police to speed up the investigation and file necessary reports soon into the allegations of corruption, money laundering and misuse of power in passing of an order when HK Patil was the minister for rural development and panchayat raj in 2014. The order exempted all commercial solar power generators from paying wheeling and banking charges and cross-subsidy surcharge for 10 years from the date of commissioning.
Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat of the Special Court to try criminal cases against former and sitting MPs and MLAs said the investigation officer shall furnish the necessary status report on April 16, the next date of hearing.
The order was passed after hearing a private complaint by TJ Abraham, alleging that no concrete steps were taken by the Lokayukta police on his complaint filed before them in October 2022.
HK Patil, Amplus KN Solar Pvt Ltd and former energy minister V Sunil Kumar are among 24 respondents in the private complaint.
The court noted that the investigating agency has concluded that there is no material to proceed against Patil now. But it has stated it has not exonerated him completely and if any material is found later, it would be placed before the court. The complainant is at liberty to file a protest petition, the court said.
The court clarified that at this juncture, it cannot issue directions to the Lokayukta police to investigate in a particular manner.
Alleging that Patil had got the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission order passed on August 18, 2014, Abraham made several allegations.Lokayukta police filed the status report to the court on February 13, 2024, stating that some accused approached the high court, which stayed further investigation. But the Lokayukta police failed to submit a further status report on February 27, the last date of the hearing.