The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday issued notices to the State government, the city police and Rajarajeshwarinagar constituency MLA Muniratna on a petition seeking a direction to transfer the probe of two criminal cases, registered against the MLA and others, on misuse of around 9,000 election photo identity cards (EPICs) during elections in May last year.
Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order on a petition filed by Rakesh N., who complained that the jurisdictional police failed to conduct the investigation properly. Though an interim charge sheet was filed arraigning the MLA as one of the accused, the charge sheet has several lapses and shortcomings and demonstrates that the investigation was not done properly, the petition claims.
Mr. Muniratna was accused of collecting the EPICs from voters in selected localities of the constituency and offering them freebies to ensure they vote in his favour. The EPICs were seized from an apartment complex in Jalahalli police limits.