Producer granted bail in murder case

The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday granted bail to realtor-cum-producer Govardhan Murthy in connection with the case pertaining to the murder of actor Vinod Kumar.

A trial court, which heard the matter, had acquitted Murthy of the crime and the State government had appealed to the High Court against the judgement.

Murthy had been charged with shooting Vinod dead at his farmhouse on October 7, 2008. Vinod, in his dying declaration, had accused Murthy of killing him.

A division bench comprising Justices Dilip Bhosale and B Manohar granted conditional bail to Murthy, who appeared before the Court as directed earlier. He was told to furnish a bond for Rs 25,000 and two sureties.

CS summoned

The High Court has directed the chief secretary to State government to appear before it to explain reasons for leaving out Chitradurga and Dakshina Kannada districts while issuing a notification to appoint Commissioner for Employees’ Compensation.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by ICICI Lombard Private Limited seeking enforcement of Section 20 of Employees’ Compensation Act, which provides for appointment of commissioners. 

The counsel for the petitioner pointed out that the gazette notification dated January 23, 2004 had left out Chitraduga and Dakshina Kannada while appointing the commissioners for rest of the districts.

Notice ordered

The High Court has ordered notice to the Chief Electoral Officer in connection with a petition challenging the order of the State Election Commission to deposit their weapons in view of the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha elections.

The petitioner K R Suresh, a native of Kodagu district had moved the Court claiming that the coffee planters had obtained the weapons for their personal purposes and hence they should be exempted from surrendering the arms.

The petitioner had claimed that he required the weapon to protect his estate from wild animals. Justice Abdul Nazeer ordered notice to the Chief Electoral Officer.