Karnataka HC reserves verdict on bail plea of IAS officer Manjunath arrested in bribery case
Bengaluru, Aug 1: The High Court of Karnataka has reserved its judgement on a bail petition of IAS officer and former Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner J Manjunath.
The judgement is expected within two days.
He was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) police for allegedly accepting Rs 5 lakh as bribe in his office.
The case turned sensational after a High Court judge, hearing the bail plea of a deputy tahsildar, an accused in the case, summoned the service records of the ACB chief and the IAS officer.
Manjunath was arrested days after the judge Justice H P Sandesh, in the deputy tahsildar's bail petition, asked why senior officers were not charged in the case.
Manjunath was arrested on July 4 and his bail plea before the Special Court, hearing the case, was rejected on July 11. He approached the High Court where Justice K Natarajan heard the petition.
The counsel on his behalf has argued that he was falsely implicated in the case after the High Court's comments by way of an additional report.
Arguing for Manjunath on Monday, senior advocate H S Chandramouli said a file was pending before Manjunath, and it was not cleared as there were thousands of pending files, and the alleged bribe was paid and collected by others without the knowledge of the Deputy Commissioner.
The deputy tahsildar working in the Deputy Commissioner's office and others are also accused in the case. The bribe was allegedly collected to give a favourable verdict in a land dispute.
The hearing of both the counsels for Manjunath and the ACB concluded today after which the court reserved its judgement.
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EAC-PM Chairman Bibek Debroy passes away
New Delhi (PTI): Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman Bibek Debroy passed away this morning, a senior EAC-PM official said.
He was admitted to AIIMS.
Debroy (69) was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur; Presidency College, Kolkata; Delhi School of Economics; and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He had worked in Presidency College, Kolkata; Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi; and also as the Director of a Ministry of Finance/UNDP project on legal reforms.
He was also a Member of NITI Aayog up to June 5, 2019. He has authored/edited several books, papers and popular articles and has also been a Consulting/Contributing Editor with several newspapers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled Debroy's passing and called him a "towering scholar".
"Dr Bibek Debroy ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality and more. Through his works, he left an indelible mark on India's intellectual landscape. Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth," he said in a post on X.
He also shared a picture of himself with Debroy.
