The court said that there is no evidence against Virupakshappa, but his son has to answer for the cash found.
Published Dec 21, 2023 | 2:01 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 21, 2023 | 2:02 PM
Former Karnataka MLA Virupakshappa Madal. (Supplied)
The High Court of Karnataka has quashed a bribery case pending against former BJP MLA from Channagiri, Madal Virupakshappa.
The case was registered after his son, Prashanth Madal, a KAS officer, was caught accepting a bribe of ₹40 lakh allegedly on behalf of his father. Subsequently, more cash was found in his residence.
“Prima facie, it is the son who has to answer the allegations in a full-blown trial,” the single bench of the high court said while quashing the case against Virupakshappa on Wednesday, 20 December.
Justice M Nagaprasanna in his judgement quashed the case pending before the special court for sitting and former legislators and said that there was no evidence against Virupakshappa, but his son should answer for the cash found.
Allowing the petition filed by the then chairman of Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), the court said, “The son is prima facie guilty of demand, acceptance and is answerable to the cash found in his house or his office. If the petitioner (Madal Virupakshappa) is nowhere found in any of the instances, he cannot be permitted to be prosecuted merely because he is the father of the accused no 2 (Prashanth Madal).”
The complaint registered by the Lokayukta police on 2 March 2023 under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) did not constitute the ingredients of offences under Section 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, the court said.
Virupakshappa, the prime accused, was charged under Sections 7(A) and 7(B) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While Prashanth was arraigned as the second accused in the case. Siddesh, Nicholas and Gangadhar were named as the other accused.
The court said that in the entire episode, there was no evidence of an offence committed by Virupakshappa.
“Since no offence in even the remotest sense was found, permitting proceedings against the ex-MLA would become an abuse of the process of law, degenerate into harassment and ultimately result in a miscarriage of justice.
“The son is prima facie guilty of demand, acceptance and is answerable to the cash found in his house or his office,” the court said, while allowing the proceedings to continue against Prashanth.
Virupakshappa was booked under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act for demanding bribes from firms that supplied chemicals to KSDL.
The MLA’s son Prashanth was trapped red-handed while accepting ₹40 lakh IN cash at his father’s office on Crescent Road in the first week of March.
He was accepting the bribe from Shreyas Kashyap, the owner of a chemical company, for the granting of a tender or contract for supplying chemical raw materials to KSDL. Virupakshappa was then its chairman.
Prashanth, who is a chief accountant with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), was immediately arrested — along with four others — from the office.
While two of the arrested, Siddesh and Surendhar, were office associates of Prashanth, two others — Albert Nicholas and Gangadhar — from Karnataka Aromas were waiting in the same office to offer ₹90 lakh (₹45 lakh each) as bribes to Prashanth. The money was also seized by the police.
The Lokayukta police also searched Madal’s house and recovered ₹8.23 crore, including the money from the office, after which the law enforcement agencies registered two more FIRs against the MLA.
Virupakshappa managed to obtain conditional bail even though he appeared before the investigating agency, and he did not cooperate with the investigations, following which the Lokayukta officials approached the high court and got his conditional bail cancelled on 27 March.
Virupakshappa was arrested by the Lokayukta police within hours, while he was on his way to Bengaluru from Tumakuru.
He was sent to five-day custody and questioned in detail before he was remanded in judicial custody till 11 April, and the court directed the Lokayukta officials to file their objections to his bail plea.
(With PTI inputs)
