Charge sheet filed in Sampangi bribery case

Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar gave consent to the Lokayukta to initiate legal proceedings against Sampangi before leaving for a tour of Europe and America on Thursday evening.

The Lokayukta was, in fact, waiting for the Speaker’s consent for the past three months to file the charge sheet.

It is for the first time in the political history of the State that the Speaker has given consent to the Lokayukta to file a charge sheet against an MLA.

The Speaker’s office staff handed over Shettar’s  letter to the Lokayukta on Friday morning. The Lokayukta filed the charge sheet before the special court by noon.

Shettar stated in the letter that the decision to give consent was taken on the basis of the norms followed by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairperson to initiate legal proceedings in courts against MPs involved in bribery cases.

He quoted a Supreme Court verdict in 1998 on giving consent to file charge sheet against former prime minister late P V Narasimha Rao and a few others on bribery charges.

Vital clues

The Lokayukta had enclosed the recorded conversation between the accused and the complainant before the arrest, vital clues collected after the arrest and other evidence in the charge sheet which runs into four volumes, said Lokayukta Additional Director General of Police Rupak Kumar Dutta.

A Lokayukta team led by Bangalore Urban District Superintendent of Police K P Madhukar Shetty trapped Sampangi while he was allegedly accepting Rs 50,000 and a cheque for Rs 4.5 lakh at his room in the Legislatures’ home on January 29 from Hussein Moin Farooq of Andersonpet in KGF.

Sampangi reportedly demanded Rs 5 lakh from Farooq to settle a land dispute between him and Iliyas, Nayaz and Khana Fayaz, all from KGF. Farooq recorded his conversation with the MLA and lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta.

The Lokayukta registered a criminal case under 7, 13 (1) D and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-1988 and arrested the MLA and produced him before the court. The court remanded him in judicial custody for three days.

Sampangi started complaining of chest pain while he was being taken to the Central Prison, Parappana Agrahara. The police rushed him to Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology.
Sampangi thus managed to stay in the hospital till he was granted bail. He attended two sessions after the incident. A committee, headed by Deputy Speaker K G Bopaiah, constituted to probe the incident, is yet to submit its the report.

Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde welcomed the Speaker’s decision.