New Delhi/Bengaluru, Jul 28: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant any protection to former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy from arrest in the cases relating to illegal grant of mining lease and lifting of minerals in favour of two miners and receipt of Rs 150 crore bribe.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan just recorded a statement by Karnataka Lokayukta’s counsel, senior advocate Vikas Singh and advocate Joseph Aristotle, and Kumaraswamy’s counsel that the matter is coming up for consideration for anticipatory bail before the High Court of Karnataka on Friday. The court said the parties would be free to raise their plea before the high court.
In a relief to Kumaraswamy, the bench, however, said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Lokayukta was permitted to carry out its investigation but the final report (charge sheet or closure) would not be filed without permission from the apex court.
However, Kumaraswamy’s anticipatory bail plea came up for hearing in the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday and the court extended the interim relief to him by directing SIT not to arrest him for the next two weeks. Justice Rathnakala adjourned the hearing by two weeks after the SIT informed the court that the mining matter is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court and sought time.
In the Supreme Court, senior advocates Raju Ramachandran and Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the JD(S) leader, contended that the investigating agency has gone on to register separate FIRs in the matter under the garb of the apex court's direction for investigation, in March this year.
“The petitioner is being harassed. They (SIT) are trying to arrest him at any cost. There are three allegations, one related to grant of mining lease in favour of Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals, second, renewal of mining lease to Janthakal Enterprises and third, about payment of Rs 150 crore bribe. But, all these were related to one transaction. There cannot be separate FIRs,” they contended.
In respect of Venkateswara Minerals, the high court had already stayed the proceedings, nevertheless the petitioner was being subjected to investigation, Ramachandran submitted.
The cases pertaining to Janthakal Enterprises and payment of bribe was already quashed by the high court but the investigating agency was re-registering FIRs, forcing the petitioner to seek anticipatory bail, Ahmadi contended, seeking the apex court's intervention.
The SIT counsel opposed the plea for any protection, contending the investigation was being conducted on the direction of the Supreme Court only. They also pointed out that the petitioner was seeking anticipatory bail from the high court, despite a clear-cut direction by the apex court that no other court would interfere into the matter.
Declining any protection to Kumaraswamy for now, the court put the plea by former chief minister S M Krishna, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, in the case related to de-reservation of forest land for consideration on September 12.
The apex court in 2012 had stayed the investigation against Krishna.
Activist T J Abraham had filed a complaint in the matter by relying upon a report prepared by the then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, indicting the then chief ministers and bureaucrats in de-reservation of 11,797 square kilometres of forest land in 2002-03 in Ballari district and grant of illegal lease, resulting in huge losses to the government. Meanwhile, the court directed handing over a copy of the SIT report to all the parties.
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