Bengaluru court castigates investigation officer of Lokayukta police and assessing officials for ‘serious lapses and misleading reports’ in corruption case
The Hindu
Bengaluru court condemns Lokayukta officers for serious investigation lapses and misleading reports in a major corruption case.
A special court in Bengaluru has made scathing remarks against an investigating officer of the Karnataka Lokayukta police and experts from different departments of the State government for “serious investigation lapses”, “dereliction of duty”, “dishonesty”, and “misleading the court”, while convicting V. Muniyappa, a former Managing Director of the Karnataka Council for Technological Upgradation, in a corruption case.
The court sentenced Muniyappa, now aged 66, to three years of rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹4.50 crore. The court found that Muniyappa had accumulated disproportionate assets worth ₹4.13 crore — a staggering 170% above his legitimate income — during the check period from December 9, 1982, to July 15, 2014.
K.M. Radhakrishna, judge of the special court for Lokayukta cases under Prevention of Corruption Act, found that Muniyappa had routed his ill-gotten wealth through family members, purchasing multiple properties in the names of his wife, a home-maker, and daughter and son, who were students with no independent income sources, during the relevant check period.
Analysing quality of probe, the Court pulled up the nvestigating officer (IO), T.V. Manjunatha, who had filed the charge sheet against Muniyappa, for multiple blunders including failure to investigate crucial assets like gold ornaments and ignoring evidences.
The court noted that the IO committed multiple blunders — including failing to investigate the source of 833.9 grams of gold ornaments, worth ₹21.68 lakh then, found during the raid, accepting Muniyappa’s self-serving explanations without any verification.
The blunders that the IO committed expose not only his negligence but also ignoring the investigation on assets and his failure to collect related evidences., the court said.
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