Bengaluru: Police Wednesday assured the Karnataka high court that no coercive action will be taken against Union minister HD Kumaraswamy, his son Nikhil, and JD(S) MLA Suresh Babu in connection with the FIR registered against them based on a complaint from senior IPS officer M Chandrashekar.
Chandrashekar, who heads the SIT probing illegal mining cases in which Kumaraswamy is an accused, alleged that the Union minister, Nikhil, and some others were trying to intimidate him and obstruct the ongoing investigation.
Kumaraswamy and the others challenged that contention, alleging the complaint was politically motivated and mala fide and sought for the FIR to quashed. Appearing for the Union minister, senior advocate Hashmath Pasha claimed that ever since the high court passed the order against the chief minister (Siddaramaiah in the Muda case), the entire police force was targeting the petitioner. He said the very registration of the FIR on Nov 4 by Sanjay Nagar police was flawed due to procedural lapses.
After Justice M Nagaprasanna recorded Additional State Public Prosecutor's submission that the state will not precipitate the matter or take any coercive steps/action against the petitioners, Pasha submitted that based on the registration of the impugned crime, the prosecution was moving an application for cancellation of anticipatory bail granted 10 years ago in the illegal mining case.
"It is made clear that the prosecution, on the reason of the registration of the impugned crime, cannot and shall not move an application seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail, and if the application is already filed, they are restrained from taking any further action on the application," Justice M Nagaprasanna observed.