Complainant seeks to withdraw case against Somanna

A complainant who had filed a case against Minister V Somanna accusing him of illegally amassing wealth disproportionate to his income in the Special Lokayukta Court has submitted an application to withdraw the complaint.

Lingadahalli Chethan Kumar had filed the complaint against Somanna in December 2012 under the Prevention of Corruption Act, accusing Somanna of posessing illegal assets to the tune of Rs 12.42 crore.

However, on Tuesday, he appeared before the Court and submitted a memo to withdraw the case.

In his memo, he has stated that in view of the judgement of the High Court of Karnataka delivered in the case filed by former Advocate General B V Acharya, he had been informed by an advocate that sanction for prosecution was required before filing the case and therefore, he was withdrawing the present complaint.

Legal fee sought

But on being questioned by Judge N K Sudhindra Rao, Chethan Kumar submitted that he was withdrawing the case, because his advocate had sought for legal fee to represent him in the case and he was unable to afford the fee.

When the irate judge asked him if he was familiar with what he had submitted in his memo, Chethan  refused to answer at first.

However, later said that it was because of the issue of sanction that he was withdrawing the case.

Under the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal complaints filed before the Court cannot be withdrawn.