On Saturday, the Karnataka high court declined to entertain as Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by Social Activist TJ Abraham as it felt he had a personal interest in it.
Abraham had sought a probe by a Special Investigating Team comprising senior officers of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and registering a First Information Report into alleged payment of bribes and collection of cash on behalf of former CM BS Yediyurappa by his son BY Vijayendra and other family members. As an alternative, he sought a CBI probe into the matter.
Appearing on Abraham’s behalf, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora told the court while acknowledging that there is a case to proceed, the trial court dismissed the private complaint on the ground that there is no valid sanction as the governor had rejected the request.
However, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka pointed out that no FIR had been registered in the first place to refer the matter to any agency.
The bench noted that since the petitioner had already filed a private complaint which had been dismissed, he had a personal interest and the remedy is elsewhere, not a PIL.
The bench directed the registry to recategorise the petition. It will now come up before a single bench.
On July 8, 2021, the trial court had rejected Abraham’s private complaint against Yediyurappa and others, citing that the governor had rejected sanction for prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Abraham had alleged payment of bribe of Rs 12 crore in relation to a BDA housing project as revealed in a TV channel’s expose and also illegal collection of around Rs 17.5 crore in cash on behalf of Yediyurappa by his family members. On November 20, 2019, he had approached the governor seeking sanction for prosecution against Yediyurappa and ST Somashekar.
In addition to Yediyurappa and his son BY Vijayendra, grandson Shashidhar Maradi, son-in-law Virupakshappa Yamakanmaradi, Sanjay Sree, son-in-law of Yediyurappa’s daughter Padmavathi, cooperation minister ST Somashekar and businessman Chandrakanth Ramalingam were named as accused.
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(With input from news agency language)
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