Shivangi Prakash-
Published on: September 8, 2021, at 09:40 IST
The Karnataka High Court said on Tuesday that if the task of giving sanction and filing a Final Report in a Corruption investigation involving preferential facilities illegally given to V.K. Sasikala in Bangalore Central Prison is not completed in 30 days, the Home Secretary will have to personally appear before the Court.
This is from when Sasikala was serving a conviction in connection with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s corruption scandal.
The ruling was issued by a Division Bench consisting Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum, who rejected the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s (ACB) request for an extension of two months to submit the final investigative report to the Court.
While hearing a PIL case submitted by K.S. Gita, a 65-year-old social worker and educator from Chennai, who questioned the probe’s delay, the Court made the following observation.
“This Court failed to understand why two months’ time is required. Sanction can be granted in a day if there a will.”
When the Court dismissed the petition on June 11, 2021, it gave the ACB two months to complete its investigation into the First Information Report filed in 2018.
However, the ACB filed an application with the High Court in August, requesting two more months to complete the investigation, and the High Court had requested a status update on the investigation from the ACB on August 13.
When the ACB’s case was heard on Tuesday, the agency’s lawyer stated that the agency would need two months since the State Government’s responsible authority had requested specific clarifications on the ACB’s application for granting of sanction to continue against four accused public workers.
While dismissing the petition in June, the High Court acknowledged that there had been a significant delay in the investigation and stated that it was granting two months’ time due of the COVID-19 outbreak at the time.
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