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Karnataka High Court refuses to quash corruption case against ex-CM HDK

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Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has refused to quash a corruption case against JD(S) leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy. 

According to a report by Live Law, Justice John Michael Cunha dismissed the petition saying, “There is sufficient material to proceed against the petitioner for the alleged offences. In the absence of any material to show that the action initiated against the petitioner is an abuse of process of court and has resulted in failure of justice, there is no ground to quash the impugned proceedings as sought for in the petition.”

The petition was made in connection with a private complaint filed by M.S.Mahadeva Swamy before the XXIII Addl. City Civil and Special Judge for Prevention of Corruption Act. He had sought the prosecution of HDK and 18 others, who were charged under sections 120B R/W 406, 420, 463, 465, 468, 471 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), sections 13(1)(c), 13(1)(d), 13(1)(e) r/w 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and sections 3 and 4 of Karnataka Land (Restriction of Transfer) Act.

A Special Court had rejected the ‘B-Report’ submitted by Lokayukta Police on December 6, 2018 and took cognizance of the offences. Submitting that no material was produced by the complainant to show that the petitioner had made any unlawful gain on account of the alleged de-notification, the petitioner argued that the Special Court failed to apply its mind to the facts of the case and passed the impugned order in violation of the statutory rules.

The petitioner also argued that the alleged acts mentioned in the complaint were performed by the petitioner while he was discharging his duty as Chief Minister, therefore no prosecution could have been launched against him without prior sanction under section 197 Cr.P.C. and section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The petitioner finally submitted that the proceedings initiated are malafide and ulteriorly motivated as the complainant is a political opponent of the petitioner. The allegations are actuated by malice and calculated to tarnish the image of the petitioner, it was argued.

The prosecution, led by Special Public Prosecutor Venkatesh S. Arbatti, submitted that the contentions urged by the petitioner were already considered by this Court in Crl.P.No.4024/2012. They also argued that the Special Leave Petition preferred by the petitioner against the said order was dismissed by the Supreme Court in the order dated October 3, 2016 in SLP (Crl.)MP.No.15963/2016. The grounds are, therefore, not available to the petitioner to challenge the orders passed by the learned Special Judge.

After the arguments, Justice Cunha observed, “This procedure, in my view, is in consonance with the procedure laid down in the above decision and does not suffer from any error or procedural irregularity.”

Regarding the petitioner’s argument that the Special Court failed to apply its mind to the facts of the case while giving its order, Cunha said, “At the stage of issuing process the Special Judge or the learned Magistrate is not required to analyse and sift the evidence and is not required to assign elaborate reasons in justification of its order.”

He concluded that he did not “find any justifiable reason to interfere with the impugned order on the purported contentions raised in the petition.”

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