In a major relief to the assembly speaker KG Bopaiah, the high court on Friday quashed the investigation ordered by the Lok Ayukta court based on a private complaint, alleging that he had swindled money allotted to build a lake in a village in Kodagu district.
It may be recalled that on December 8, 2011, the Lok Ayukta police in Madikeri had filed an FIR against the speaker and three other government officials - zilla panchayat (ZP) member SN Raja Rao, ZP CEON Krishnappa, and Kodagu Nirmiti Kendra project manager Yoga Narasimha.
The complaint alleged that the four men diverted funds that were allotted to build a lake in Thithimathi village in Kodagu.
Based on the directions of the district and sessions court, an FIR was filed against the speaker and the other accused. Congress member Saritha Poonacha had filed a complaint on December 2.
Bopaiah and others then moved the high court to stay the investigation. He and the other accused have claimed that the work for the lake was entrusted to the firm Kodagu Nirmiti Kendra and they did not have any role.
The high court on February 3 had reserved judgement on the petition of speaker Bopaiah.
Justice N Ananda observed that the averments of the complaint do not establish that Bopaiah had abused his position as a public servant for entrustment of work to Kodagu district for Nirmiti Kendra for withdrawal of work from engineering division of Kodagu district. Therefore, the averments do not disclose that Bopaiah had abused his position as an MLA or the speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly and had exercised official power in such capacity to obtain pecuniary advantage.
The reference made under Section 156(3) of the CrPc for investigation was quashed. The judge observed that Rao, Krishnappa and Narasimha have misused their position, by spending money from the public exchequer.
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