Former high court judge Justice MF Saldanha on Tuesday said that the government has committed grave contempt of court by transferring Jeevan Kumar Gaonkar, additional director general of police, Lok Ayukta police.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Justice Saldanha said, “Whoever has signed his transfer order will be individually culpable of committing contempt of court. A few officials like the home secretary, director general of police, home minister were collectively responsible,” he said.
Justice Saldanha said the government is trying to either destroy evidence or stall the investigations by changing the officers who head investigating teams. There is a case for the judiciary of Karnataka to take up an ‘interventional step’ to prevent politicians from subverting the process of justice.
“He (Gaonkar) was in-charge of investigation of six important cases of corruption and illegal land denotification, which could have sent many more politicians to jail,” said Justice Saldanha.
On the delay in the appointment of the state’s Lok Ayukta, he said, “I have written togovernor HR Bhardwaj that there were provisions to appoint a Lok Ayukta from other parts of the country if there was nobody who could qualify for the job in the state, to which the governor told me that there will be another controversy if he appointed a Lok Ayukta from another state.”
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