BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa facing bribery charges deposes before Lokayukta cops
Bengaluru, Mar 9: In eye of storm, BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa, who is an accused in a bribe case deposed before the Lokayukta police here on Thursday.
Flanked by a lawyer and policemen, the MLA from Channagiri constituency in Davangere reached the Lokayukta office.
According to Lokayukta sources, Deputy Superintendent of Police Antony John J K, who has been appointed as the investigation officer, is interrogating the MLA.
Virupakshappa, who resigned as the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL) chairman, is accused of collecting bribe through his son from contractors supplying raw material for the KSDL.
The Lokayukta sleuths had arrested Virupakshappa's son Prashanth Kumar M V from the KSDL office on March 2 while allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh from a contractor.
Prashanth Kumar is the chief accounts officer of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board.
Further searches led to the recovery of Rs 8.23 crore from the KSDL office and the MLA's house.
The interrogation will revolve around the cash haul in KSDL office and MLA's house.
Accepting that the huge cache of money found in his house belonged to his family, the BJP MLA, who got anticipatory bail on Tuesday told reporters, ''Our Taluk is known as the land of arecanut (supari). An ordinary farmer in our arecanut land has Rs five to six crore at home. I have 125 acres arecanut farm, arecanut market, and I have many other businesses as well. I will furnish the appropriate documents to the Lokayukta and get back my money.''
According to the Lokayukta sources, huge quantity of gold, silver ornaments were found in the MLA's house besides large investment in land.
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Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case: HC grants bail to Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale
Mumbai, Jan 8: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted bail to researcher Rona Wilson and activist Sudhir Dhawale, both arrested in 2018 in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
A division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata took note of their long incarceration, and the fact that the trial is not likely to be completed any time soon.
The accused were languishing in jail since 2018 and even the charges are yet to be framed by the special court, defence lawyers Mihir Desai and Sudeep Pasbola had argued.
The high court on Wednesday said it was not dealing with the merits of the case at this stage.
Wilson and Dhawale were directed to submit a surety of Rs one lakh each, and appear before the special NIA court for the trial hearing.
The bench noted that there are over 300 witnesses in the case, and hence it is not possible for the trial to be concluded in the near future.
The case pertains to provocative speeches allegedly delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, triggering violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district the next day.
The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by the Maoists.
The National Investigation Agency later took over the probe. Of the 16 persons arrested in the case, many are now out on bail.
Rona Wilson was arrested in June 2018 from his home in Delhi. He was described by the probe agencies as one of the top brass of urban Maoists.
Sudhir Dhawale was one of the first to be arrested, accused of being an active member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
