BENGALURU: Rejecting the ‘B’ report (closure report) filed by Lokayukta police in a corruption case against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accepting his self-serving statement without conducting investigation in a fair manner by providing sufficient opportunity to the complainant to substantiate the allegations, a Special Court has ordered Lokayukta police to conduct further investigation to check charges of ‘quid pro-quo’ against Siddaramaiah and file a fresh final report within six months.
Special Court Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, who is to try criminal cases against former and sitting MPs/MLAs, passed the order while allowing the petition filed by the complainant, former corporator NR Ramesh, protesting the ‘B’ report filed by Lokayukta police.
The complainant had alleged that Siddaramaiah, during his first stint as Chief Minister, had received around Rs 1.3 crore through cheque on July 28, 2014, as kickbacks from L Vivekananda alias King’s Court Vivek, managing director of Vivek Hotels from Mysuru, to appoint him steward of Bengaluru Turf Club Limited.
On receipt of the complaint, the court directed the office to register a private complaint and had called for a status report from the investigation agency. Subsequently on June 7, 2023, Deputy SP, Karnataka Lokayukta, Bengaluru City, had filed a closure report contending that “there was no act of quid-pro-quo made out against the accused” on the basis of materials collected during the preliminary enquiry.
Rejecting the closure report, the court noted that it is relevant that the complainant is raising serious questions about the credibility of the investigation being conducted, since Siddaramaiah holds a high place of constitutional authority. The investigation agency had not probed the case from all possible angles that are permissible in the eyes of the law. The court repeatedly made it clear that it was not expressing any opinion with respect to the merits or demerits of the case, but is only concerned with the manner in which the closure report was filed hastily, the court said.