Kidnap bid charges: HC dismisses plea by BSY's aide

The High Court has dismissed the petition filed by N R Santosh, political secretary to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, seeking to quash charges of attempt to kidnap against him.

The complainant, N S Vinay, who was an advisor to RDPR Minister K S Eshwarappa, told the court that Santosh engaged nine persons to kidnap him to secure a CD, a pen drive and other materials.

Justice H P Sandesh declined to quash the charge sheet filed against Santosh stating that a charge of conspiracy will have to be ascertained only on full-pledged trial.

The counsel representing Santosh contended that there is no material that he was involved in the offence. He relied upon Apex Court judgments and said though there was no material against Santosh, the trial court issued the summons without application of mind.

Appearing before the court party-in-person, Vinay argued that there was material that showed that Santosh had engaged the other accused to kidnap him. He said the alleged attempt to kidnap him was to secure a CD, a pen drive, laptop and screenshots of a chat between them.

At the time of the incident, Santosh was working as a private secretary to Yediyurappa. Vinay told the court that Yediyurappa had written a letter to the investigating officer not to take any action against Santosh.

According to Vinay, accused number three in the case Prashanth, who was a rowdy-sheeter, died under mysterious circumstances when Santosh’s involvement surfaced.

The court while dismissing the petition filed by Santosh said that criminal conspiracy has to be proved by collecting material through circumstantial evidence.

“Hence, it requires trial. At this juncture, the court cannot invoke Section 482 of CrPC, when the specific allegation is made against this petitioner that he had conspired with accused No. 2,” the court said.

Background

Vinay had alleged that on May 11, 2017, at around 4 pm, some miscreants attempted to kidnap him. When he raised an alarm, the miscreants pushed him outside the car and fled.

After the investigation on the complaint by Vinay, the police filed the charge sheet and the matter was committed to the Sessions Court. The charge sheet names Santosh as accused number one in the case.