Bengaluru: A special court investigating into the Jantakal Mining Company bribery case has quashed the anticipatory bail petition filed by former chief minister H D Kumarswamy.
Giving bail may influence the future proceedings of the case being investigated by SIT, the court reasoned while quashing the bail application filed by Kumarswamy.
It may be recalled that HDK is facing allegations of having received bribe from the Jantakal Mining Company in an illegal mining case following Supreme Court ordering a probe against him. Kumaraswamy had been getting bails in this case. His anticipatory bail application with the Lokayukta court too was dismissed earlier.
An SIT inquiry into the allegations of Kumaraswamy receiving Rs 150 Crore in bribe is in progress.
Kumaraswamy’s lawyer, however, argued that an old case has been revived with malicious intentions and demanded that it be withdrawn. However, the court dismissed those arguments and dismissed HDK’s bail application.
HDK to move High Court
Kumarswamy fearing arrest after the special court quashed his anticipatory bail application has decided to move High Court seeking anticipatory bail. According to sources, advocates on HDK’s side have already begun the process of submitting a petition in the high court soon.
Kumaraswamy, who was the JD-S Chief Minister in 2006-07, is alleged to have given permission to extend the lease to Janthakal Enterprise, for extracting iron ore from the mineral-rich Ballari, Chitradurga and Tumakuru districts and export it.
The license was extended for 40 years (1985-2025) on August 23, 2007, to the company owned by jailed mining baron Vinod Goel by former Mines and Geology Department Director and Principal Secretary Gang Ram Baderia on the basis of two forged letters from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Karnataka Revenue Principal Secretary Gangaram Baderia was arrested on May 15 in the same case. He was granted bail by the court on June 3.
Former minister G Janardhana Reddy, who spent 40 months in prison, appeared before Lokayukta’s SIT on Tuesday afternoon.
The SIT had asked Reddy in May to furnish the evidence in the allegations he made against Kumaraswamy in 2006.
