The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday reserved its order on a petition challenging a special court’s decision to conduct an inquiry into alleged irregularities in the allotment of a civic amenity site to the Siddhartha Vihar Trust, associated with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his family.
The petition was filed by Vijayraghava Marathe, state president of the Bribe-Free Karnataka Forum. He challenged the special court’s decision to conduct the inquiry itself instead of directing the Lokayukta police to register a case and investigate the allegations. The petitioner argued that the allegations warranted a proper investigation by the Lokayukta police. The High Court’s order will determine whether the allegations are subjected to a formal Lokayukta police investigation.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Lakshmi Aiyangar said the special court had earlier decided to proceed under Section 223 of the BNSS. It instead decided to conduct an inquiry under Section 223.
The special court had earlier declined to refer the complaint to the Lokayukta police, citing technical defects in the complainant’s affidavit.
“Earlier, the court had ordered that the matter be proceeded with under Section 223 of the BNSS. We appealed before the High Court seeking a direction to try the case under Section 175(3) of the BNSS since the case was filed under prevention of corruption act. The petitioner maintained that returning the land did not wipe out the alleged criminality and that the circumstances surrounding the allotment required investigation.
The court has allowed our petition and reserved the matter for orders,” Aiyangar said.
