Karnataka Lokayukta corruption case: Unverified SIM cards used in racket
BENGALURU: It has come to light that barring BSNL, most of the SIM cards, which were used in the alleged extortion racket in the Lokayukta, were provided by private mobile phone service providers without proper customer verification.
"This is another scam, which is waiting to explode. Multiple SIM cards have been bought from various mobile service providers in a short span of time on bogus names,” he said.
“The addresses are genuine but the customers, in whose names the SIM cards have been bought are fake. The photographs do not match any of the people, who live in those places. Most of the SIM cards were bought in Bengaluru, but addresses were given of people in various districts of Karnataka," said an official source.
"One address was located at Sakleshpur and the Lokayukta police were trying to track the person in whose name a SIM card was issued, when the High Court stayed the in house investigation," the officer added.
SP manipulated FIR: Ashwin’s lawyer
The counsel for Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao’s son Ashwin Rao received the certified copy of the FIR lodged by the Lokayukta police wing from the Lokayuta court on Friday and the same was filed in the registry of the High Court on Saturday. “The matter may come up before the court on Monday or Tuesday, there will be a clarification on the FIR lodged on our client,” said Ashwin’s advocate.
“Seeing the certified copy, it has come to our knowledge that though the FIR demonstrates that it was registered at 12 noon on July 1, the same was sent to the special court, right next to the Lokayukta police station, at 2.25 pm. This raises serious doubts about whether it was registered prior to the grant of interim order or after the grant of the interim order to overreach the order from the court,” the advocate said. We got the stay order at 1.20 pm, he added.
“There is some kind of manipulation at the hands of the Lokayukta police, who have falsely implicated Ashwin in this case,” the advocate added. “The court had opined on July 1 itself at 2:30 pm, after the lunch recess. We had brought to the notice of the court about the FIR that has been registered, despite the court ruled that the in-house proceedings into the subject matter should be stalled and therefore all contingencies are covered in the interim court.
However, to bring it on record, the division bench observed to produce the certified copy of the FIR,” said Ashwin’s counsel to Deccan Chronicle. We should also be prepared to rush to the Lokayukta court to obtain anticipatory bail for Ashwin if the FIR stands, he added.
