NEW DELHI: TheSupreme Courton Friday in its order rejected the desperate appeal filed by Karnataka Congress legislator and former minister Vinay R Kulkarni for extension of time to surrender in connection with the 2016 murder of BJP leader Yogesh Gowda.
This came exactly a week after Kulkarni's bail was cancelled by the top court on June 6 in the 2016 murder of BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader Gowda. He had to move the top court seeking more time, as the SC directed him to surrender by within a week, by June 13.
Vinay, in his appeal in the top court, requested it to grant more time on the ground that he has to participate in a meeting scheduled to be held this week. This fervent plea was outrightly rejected by the top court on Friday.
The two-judge vacation bench, led by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan, heard his petition and dismissed it.
On June 6, the top court ordered Kulkarni to surrender within one week before the concerned trial court. It allowed a plea filed by the CBI -- the probe agency in the case -- seeking cancellation of his bail.
The top court cancelled Kulkarni's bail, after finding that he and another accused had tried to contact and influence witnesses in violation of conditions imposed upon them while being granted bail.
The apex court also, in its order clarified that the trial court can cancel the bail of an accused even if the relief was granted by the apex court or the High Court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), through senior law officer- Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S V Raju, had on the top court earlier alleged Kulkarni and another accused of trying to influence, and attempted to contact some prosecution witnesses more particularly the one identified as Nagappa Bairagonde. "We thereby seek immediate cancellation of Kulkarni-s bail," Raju had argued.
The CBI moved the top court challenging the trial court's April 25, 2024, order which cancelled the bail granted to accused Chandrashekhar Indi alias Chandu Mama, but declined to pass such an order against Kulkarni as he was allowed to be released on bail by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2021.
As per the CBI, BJP worker Goudar, 26, a member of district Panchayat, was brutally hacked to death on June 15, 2016, at his gym in Saptapur in Dharwad after being immobilised with chilli powder, thrown on his face.
The victim's family members alleged the role of former Minister and Congress leader Kulkarni into the murder, as a result if which the investigation was handed over to the CBI.
The CBI claimed that Kulkarni, who was the district in charge minister at the relevant time, did not want Goudar to grow as a leader in Dharwad and hired contract killers to eliminate him.
Senior advocates Maninder Singh, and Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Kulkarni, vehemently opposed the bail cancellation plea of CBI, and claimed that no condition imposed upon him has been violated by him in any way. In this regard, the counsel submitted that Kulkarni is a responsible lawmaker who has never meddled with the administration of justice.