Apex Court asks HC to expeditiously decide pleas against Yeddyurappa
16 Dec 2015 4:50 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Karnataka High Court to "expeditiously" decide pleas relating to registration of three FIRs by Lokayukta against former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in land-denotification cases in Bengaluru.
"We request the Karnataka High Court to dispose of the petitions expeditiously," a bench of justices J Chelameswar and A M Sapre said.
The bench, meanwhile, granted liberty to Karnataka government to come before it again if the petitions are not decided expeditiously. The High Court is slated to hear the cases on December 16.
The state government had approached the apex court against an interim order of the high court, passed on September 15, staying the investigation relating to land de-notification against the BJP leader.
In separate special leave petitions before SC, the state had contended that the High Court ought not to have stayed the investigation into the complaints made before Lokayukta made on the basis of the Comptroller and Auditor General report, highlighting “misuse of authority with a corrupt motive thereby causing heavy loss to state exchequer”.
Another accused of the ED in the same case, British national Christian Michel James, has already been notified for arrest by the Interpol earlier this month on the request of the CBI which is also parallely probing the case.
Sources privy to the case said while ED had also obtained an NBW and requested for an RCN against James, the Interpol warrant issued on the behest of the CBI “may well serve their purpose as well.”
“Charges under PMLA may be inserted in the already published Interpol notice against Michel. With these two RCNs coming, the agencies have obtained global warrants against whom they wanted in their respective probes till now,” they said. While making a plea for the world-wide warrant, the ED had told the court that the Italians were required to be interrogated on many aspects of the case after its probe established their role in the case.
ED had earlier claimed in the court that AgustaWestland had allegedly paid a “kickback” of around 70 million Euros, out of which around 30 million Euros was paid to James and his firm Global Services FZE, Dubai, while Gerosa and Haschke had cornered the rest.
ED, in July 2014, had lodged a separate case under PMLA against several persons after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR registered earlier. Late last year, the central probe agency filed a charge sheet in the case against businessman Gautam Khaitan and others, including Gerosa and Haschke for alleged offences committed under various PMLA sections.
Next Story
