HC orders Congress leader Eshwar Khandre to pay Rs 5 lakh towards Covid fund

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh on KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre for not responding to the notices issued for almost two years in relation to the petition filed by DK Sidram, a defeated BJP candidate, questioning his election as MLA, in 2018. Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the order to pay Rs 5 lakh to the Covid-19 relief fund.

Before this, Khandre’s counsel had submitted that the summons of the election petition was in fact served to Basavaraj Baburao, Khandre’s personal assistant. “Baburao was suffering from a disease, later diagnosed as Acute Encephalopathy. It affected his memory,” he added. He also filed an affidavit along with supporting documents to show Baburao’s medication in a hospital in Pune for two months between June 3 and August 10, 2019 as an in-patient.

As his condition worsened, he breathed his last on October 11, 2020, the counsel informed. The petitioner’s counsel argued that elected representatives should be more alert when it comes to fighting election petition. The judge noted the plausible explanation offered by Khandre to show how the notice remain unnoticed and he also informed that Khandre came to know about the notice after it was published in newspapers in July 2020, the judge said.