Bengaluru: After arguing that the Congress government in the state has denotified 1,300 acres of land, senior advocate C.V. Nagesh, appearing for former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, on Monday continued his argument submitting that the complaint against Mr Yeddyurappa could not have been registered as per the Anti-Corruption Bureau's (ACB) own notification.
He argued that the state government formed ACB in March 2016 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. “According to the notification which governs ACB, the Bureau is restrained from straightway registering an FIR against any government employee. Further, to register an FIR, authorities have to mandatorily seek sanction from competent authorities. Despite such conditions, the ACB has not sought any such requisite permission before registering the FIR in these matters, and thus has wrongly registered the FIR in the matter," he argued.
He further submitted before the court that so far, 32 complaints have been filed before the ACB, including against a few ministers in various cases and even present Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has the Hublot watch case. Despite 32 cases being filed before the ACB, not a single FIR has been registered in any of those cases and it seems like the state government has formed the ACB to protect its own ministers, he alleged.
“According to the SC directions with regard to corruption cases, the authorities are supposed to conduct preliminary investigation between 15 days and a maximum of six weeks. However, in the case of Mr Yeddyurappa, the FIR has been registered after two months of filing a complaint before it," he argued.
The court has adjourned the hearing of petitions filed by Mr Yeddyurappa challenging the two separate FIRs registered against him by the ACB in connection with denotification of Dr Shivaram Karanth Layout to Wednesday.
