HC stays court order dropping charges against Reddy

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday issued a stay over the order passed by a special court for the trial of complaints against MLAs and MPs for dropping a charge- Indian Penal Code Section 409 (Criminal breach of trust) against former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy over his involvement in the illegal mining case.

The single-judge bench comprising Justice B A Patil issued an interim stay over the special court’s order after the Central Bureau of Investigation advocate P Prasanna Kumar filed the Criminal Revision Petition and the bench will resume hearing of the case after six weeks. Pursuant to the Supreme Court order back in 2009, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against then Ballari District-in-charge minister Janardhan
Reddy and other 22 government officials after conducting a detailed investigation on illegal mining and export activities in the district and had begun the trial.

In the meantime, the former minister had filed a plea before the same court under Section 216 of the CrPC seeking dropping of charges under Section 409 of Indian Penal Code.

However, the special court, without any opposition, had passed the order dropping charges. Challenging the special court’s order, the Central Bureau of Investigation had appealed to the High Court to set aside the special court’s order.

The said section could invite imprisonment for life or imprisonment which may extend to 10 years and shall be liable to fine.