Karnataka HC dismisses petition against Santosh Hegde

Karnataka High Court today dismissed a PIL, charging Governor HR Bhardwaj, Home Minister R Asoka, BJP MP Ananth Kumar and former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde with conspiring to unseat former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa when he was in power.

A division bench,headed by acting Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen dismissed the petition filed by city based advocate H R Vishwanath, observing there was no merit in it and that the petitioner had wasted the time of the court.

The bench also directed him to pay a fine of Rs one lakh to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund within four weeks.

Vishwanath in his petition last month had accused Bhardwaj, Asoka, Ananth Kumar and Santosh Hegde of hatching a criminal conspiracy to unseat former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa when he was in power.

He had also urged the court to issue a mandamus to constitute a committee for probing the "criminal conspiracy" against the ex-Chief Minister.