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Karnataka Today newsletter: HC pauses further proceedings on complaints against CM Siddaramaiah, and more

In a temporary relief to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Karnataka High Court ordered deferring of further proceedings pending before a special court in Bengaluru on private complaints seeking investigation against the CM and others in alleged illegalities in allocation of sites to his wife by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

On August 19, the High Court also directed the special court not to precipitate the matters that are connected with the sanction granted by the Governor against Mr. Siddaramaiah. The court passed the interim order after it was pointed that the Special Court of Sessions for criminal cases against former and present MPs and MLAs is scheduled to pass an order on whether or not to entertain one of the two complaints filed against Mr. Siddaramaiah.

The Chief Minister had moved th court earlier in the day questioned the legality of the sanction granted by Governor permitting investigation under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and prosecution under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita, 2023. Meanwhile, workers and leaders of the Congress staged protests in various parts of Karnataka opposing the Governor’s sanction for prosecution.

Chief Minster Siddaramaiah sought to draw a distinction between Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot sanctioning prosecution against him in the alleged MUDA scam now, and then governor Hansraj Bhardwaj doing so against B.S. Yediyurappa on January 11, 2011. Taking to social media on August 19, he said: “Opposition was displaying ignorance in drawing parallels and asking for his resignation, since the circumstances are starkly different.”

Mr. Bhardwaj had sanctioned the prosecution of Mr. Yediyurappa in the Rachenahalli denotification scam back then, “supported by 1,600 pages of strong evidence submitted by the petitioners”. Despite this, Mr. Yediyurappa did not step down as CM. He eventually resigned on August 4, 2011 after the Lokayukta submitted a report to the State Government and Governor, which indicated that illegal mining had caused a loss of ₹16,500 crore to the State’s treasury, Mr. Siddaramaiah recalled.

As many as 19 nursing students took ill and, of them, three are being treated at an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), due to suspected rat poison contamination at the hostel of Adarsh Nursing College in Jnanabharathi on August 18.

The hostel management had engaged a private person to spray rat poison in the basement of the hostel where the generator had been installed, to keep away rodents which were biting the wires. Police suspect that this poison spread to the other areas of the hostel and was inhaled by the students, rendering them ill.