Bengaluru: The seventh Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Court has ordered the Sadhashivnagar police to begin probe into a complaint registered by two journalists of a private TV news channel that they were assaulted by Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his henchmen after a failed sting operation.
The journalists claimed that they were allegedly assaulted and manhandled by the minister’s henchmen on March 10 when their sting operation went wrong.
The journalists had approached Mr Shivakuamr, claiming to be representatives of a British energy company that was looking to set up a solar power generation facility in the state and looking for clearances from the energy minister.
The minister, who knew about the sting, asked the journalists to come later in the evening and laid a trap for them. When the journalists returned in the evening with some money as a “gift for the minister”, Mr Shivakumar, who already had some policemen in plainclothes at his house, asked the police to arrest the journalists for offering him a bribe. The journalists were arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act, remanded to two days of judicial custody and later released on bail.
Representatives of the news channel said that when a counter-complaint was lodged at the Sadashivnagar police station against the minister and his henchmen, the FIR was registered with unknown names in the accused column. The court has ordered the police to submit a report on the probe done till now by June 7.
Sadashivnagar police said that they had not got any communication from the court and that the case had already been registered and the investigations were on. “We will abide by the court order when we get it and submit the report” said Mr B.R. Ravikanthe Gowda, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central).
