The Supreme Court on Friday put for final consideration a plea made by the Karnataka government against quashing of criminal proceedings against managing director of ITASCA Software Development Pvt Ltd, S V Srinivas.
Srinivas was accused of paying money to former minister and BJP leader Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son in the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) scam.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and Sanjay Kishan Kaul granted leave in the petition filed by the Karnataka government against the high court order passed on March 10, 2016, that has quashed criminal proceedings against Srinivas.
The Rs 360-crore scam involved the then minister for industries, IT and BT, his son and others. They were alleged to have defrauded farmers by taking over their land through some firms. The then minister was accused of illegal gratification; committing irregularities in allotment of lands and exercising undue influence on various persons including private persons and KIADB officials.
He was also accused of forgery. He was alleged to have dropped approximately 450 acres of land in Bandikodigehalli from acquisition and notified those separately for acquisition without the consent of the land owners.
On Friday, the court allowed a plea made by senior advocate Vikas Singh and counsel Joseph Aristotle, appearing for Karnataka, for expediting the hearing but it refused to give an exact date. The high court had quashed the charges framed against the firm's official after noting that multiple FIRs were filed in the same matter.
Published 07 July 2017, 18:55 IST