‘Go to DPAR in graft case against ex-BBMP chief’

The high court has asked Namma Bengaluru Foundation to move the competent authority for sanction to prosecute former BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana in a corruption case.

The competent authority, in this case, is the DPAR, which has to make a recommendation under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The recommendation will then go to the Centre for the grant of the prosecution sanction. The NGO wants criminal action against Lakshminarayana for issuing a trade licence to a person who runs Breakfast Club restaurant in a residential part of Koramangala. It said he wrote a note to BBMP health officials: “Please help in getting the trade licence”.

The NGO said that by granting the licence, the commissioner violated the Revised Master Plan 2015 that barred commercial activity on roads that are 40 feet wide or less.

The NGO first approached the government, seeking to prosecute Lakshminarayana but there was no response. It then moved the court which ordered the Additional Chief Secretary to consider its petition but he turned it down. The NGO moved the court again. On Wednesday, the ACS said he was not the competent authority to examine the petition.