HC orders Marigowda to give details of cheating case against him

The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday sought details of a cheating case pending against K Marigowda, a close aide of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is accused of obstructing Mysuru Deputy Commissioner C Shikha from discharging her duty.

Justice H G Ramesh wondered why the details of the cheating case were not provided in the list of cases against Marigowda. The bench, which is hearing his anticipatory bail petition, asked his counsel to furnish the status of the pending cheating case (crime number 5/2013) registered against him in 2013.

Earlier, the bench had asked the counsel to provide details of all the cases, either pending or closed, against Marigowda. Although 10 cases registered against Marigowda in 2007 were withdrawn, the CID had filed the ‘C’ report in some cases. In the list of cases against Marigowda, there were no details of the cheating case, except for the case number. The counsel sought time till Monday to provide the details.

It was revealed that in 10 cases, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was the first accused and Marigowda and one Appanna were accused No 2 and 3, respectively. They were charged with instigating a mob to torch KSRTC buses in 2007.

Marigowda, a former president of Mysuru zilla panchayat, had moved the High Court after a sessions court in Mysuru rejected his anticipatory bail application. Shikha had filed a complaint against him following the incident at Government Guest House in Mysuru on July 3. The sessions court had rejected Marigowda’s request for advance bail on the grounds that he was a habitual offender and there were cases registered against him earlier for causing obstruction to officials from discharging their duties.