SC declines bail to Riyaz, three others in Lokayukta extortion racket 'for now'

The Supreme Court on Friday told four men, who are accused of being part of the extortion racket in the office of the Karnataka Lokayukta, that it was difficult to grant them bail at the moment.

A bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy, however, posted the matter for consideration on April 1. The Lokayukta’s former Public Relations Officer (PRO) Syed Riyazullah, television journalist M B Srinivasa Gowda and two others Shankare Gowda and Ashok Kumar have again moved the court for bail.

“We shall take up the matter after Holi vacation. We have gone through the status report filed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). We can’t give you copy of the report. We don’t want to say anything but it is difficult (to grant you bail),” the bench told the counsel for the accused.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra and advocate Joseph Aristotle, who are representing the SIT, submitted two other reports in sealed covers to the court.

They earlier stated that the SIT’s request for prosecution of former Lokayukta Y Bhaskar Rao was awaiting sanction. They also referred to other cases where there was “clear interference” by the accused.

The court had earlier refused to modify its September 16, 2016, order that stayed the bail given to the accused by the High Court of Karnataka.