Lokayukta, a divided house over moving HC for police powers

There is no consensus in Lokayukta office on moving the High Court against the government for not according police station powers.

It is learnt, the ADGP Lokayukta Dr S Parashiva Murthy, who earlier wrote a letter to the government seeking restoration of powers to continue investigation on pending cases as per High Court orders, has now taken an u-turn.

In a clarification to the Registrar Lokayukta, the ADGP has stated that search, seizures, arrests or even filing of charge sheet or B report can be done without having police station power or powers to investigate cases under Prevention of Corruption Act.

In the last one week the office of the Lokayukta had been contemplating to move the High Court seeking restoration of police station powers. In this regard, the registrar had sought clarification from the ADGP “whether there could be search, seizure, arrest of the accused and such other actions by the Lokayukta police in the pending matters despite withdrawal of the police station status.''

The office of the registrar also sought to know whether a final report, either charge sheet or B report, could be filed before the court in the absence of the police station power. The ADGP on Saturday clarified, “There is likelihood of search and seizure, arrest of the accused during the investigation of pending cases. In all cases, charge sheets or B reports, as applicable, will be submitted before the concerned trial courts.''

However, on a specific clarification whether there is a need to file intervening application in the High Court seeking directions to the government, the ADGP has left it to the registrar for suitable action.

Under the circumstances, it is unlikely that the office of the Lokayukta move the High Court seeking direction to the state government on restoration of police station power. The ADGP wrote to the registrar on Saturday, the day on which Lokayukta police raided 10 advertising agencies in the city in connection with a two-year-old case of illegal hoardings in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits.

Saidatta, who first complained about the illegal hoardings to the Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi, said that the advertisers may approach the court claiming that the Lokayukta police do not have powers to investigate without police station powers.

“I feel the Lokayukta police should not have gone ahead with the raids unless they were clear about the powers. If they have the powers then why not carry out raids in important cases against MLAs and bureaucrats. I have learnt that the Lokayukta police had obtained search warrants before raiding the advertising agencies. I only hope that the act by the Lokayukta police does not help the offenders to escape the law,” he said.