During the hearing of a petition by K R Khaleel Ahmed, Raghu V and 60 other candidates, who have moved the High Court seeking CBI probe into the irregularities after the government failed to implement the recommendations of the K K Mishra Commission, the court felt a sitting judge would not be able to dedicate much time to this case and sought to know if a retired judge could be appointed.
After the petitioners said they had no objections to it, Additional Advocate general K M Nataraj proposed the name of former High Court judge and former Upa Lokayukta Justice Patri Basanagoud to guide the CID.
Six months
The division bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri granted six months time to CID to complete the investigation and submit a report.
The court directed the State to provide perks and remuneration to the judge on par with a sitting judge. It asked the State to provide him an office and other facilities at Vidhana Soudha or Vikasa Soudha within a week.
The CID was directed to report to the judge every alternative day, update him about the investigation and take his suggestions. However, after this order, it is learnt that Justice Basanagoud refused the offer on health grounds. The bench, later in the afternoon, appointed Justice Mohammed Anwar.
Meanwhile, the CID which was at the receiving end of the bench’s wrath, on Tuesday apologised for the inconvenience and submitted an affidavit stating that FIR had been filed against persons alleged to have been involved in misappropriation. “FIRs have been filed under Section 418, 465, 466, 468, 471, 506 and 120-B against Asha Praveen, Y B Archana, Salma Firdose, Dr H N Krishna and others,” Deputy Inspector General (DIG) B A Padmanayan submitted.
Padmanayan said his team would complete investigation as scheduled and said he was being assisted by a team of officers comprising Lokesh Kumar, SP, CID, N M Ramalingappa, DySP, CID, VPM Swamy, Police Inspector, CID and others.
Directions to KPSC
He submitted that directions had been issued to KPSC to submit all original records related to Gazetted Probationers Examination held for recruitment to Group A and B posts during 1998, 1999 and 2004.
“I have directed Ramalingappa to collect and seize original documents pertaining to the examination. Some have already been seized,” he said.
Stating that the status of investigation would be made known to the judge every alternative day, Padmanayan submitted that cases would be registered with the fraud squad and investigation would be taken up by DIG, CID as ordered by High Court on August 17.
An official memorandum by DGP, CID, Shankar Bidari, regarding the instructions to be followed during the investigation was also submitted to the High Court.
