Karnataka HC refuses to stay corruption probe against Congress MLA
The Enforcement Directorate said in its findings that the MLA had amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income when he was a minister in Karnataka between 2013 and 2018.
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Karnataka High Court refused to stay corruption investigations launched by the Karnataka Lokayukta police against Congress MLA and key Muslim leader Zameer Ahmed Khan. (Facebook/Zameer Ahmed Khan) The Karnataka High Court has refused to stay corruption investigation launched by the state Lokayukta police against Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan on the basis of the findings of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that the MLA, during his tenure as a state minister from 2013-2018, had amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Khan, who is considered a close ally of senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, approached the High Court against the Lokayukta police’s corruption probe on the grounds that the case was taken up without any source report of corruption and amassing of disproportionate assets.
The Karnataka Lokayukta police has registered an FIR alleging that the MLA has amassed wealth that is 2,031 times more than his known sources of income.
Khan argued in his plea before the HC that the police neither collected nor produced any source report to launch the corruption investigation. He said the police did not carry out any preliminary probe to ascertain the corruption allegations made by the ED.
The Lokayukta police, however, said there was no requirement for a preliminary probe since the investigation was taken up on the basis of a reference by a central agency like the ED. The Lokayukta Superintendent of Police verified the documents and registered the FIR, the police pointed out.
The court observed that the ED had registered a case against Khan in 2019 and stated that the MLA amassed Rs 87.44 crore, which is disproportionate to his known sources of income to the extent of 2,031 times, and that the agency had written to the erstwhile Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau to carry out further investigation in 2021.
Referring to previous Supreme Court and High Court orders, the court stated that “five legislation — CrPC, DSPE Act, PC Act, CVC Act and Lokpal Act — on the subject of corruption operates as an integrated scheme”.
“It cannot be considered as a source report where the police registered a suo motu case on independent information received from its own source but it is from the ED, and the DySP, ACB, has stated that the documents are verified by him and thereafter the FIR has been registered,” the HC bench headed by Justice K Natarajan said on Thursday.
The court held that at this stage it cannot go into the merits of the case, whether or not the investigating officer considered the sale deed executed by the petitioner.
“Therefore, further investigation against the petitioner cannot be stayed at this stage,” the court ruled while rejecting an interim application filed by Khan.
The Congress MLA had earlier said he was willing to vacate his Chamrajpet constituency in Bengaluru for Siddaramaiah to facilitate the election of the former CM to the state legislature in the 2023 Assembly polls.
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