The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea of Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, demanding that the proceedings be removed in a land scam. The Supreme Court cited the seriousness of the charges and abuse of their posts while refusing to plead guilty.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has challenged the Supreme Court since October 2020 on corruption cases appealing to the Karnataka High Court order, which is in line with two Land plots related. The High Court also refused to withdraw the lawsuit.
The case involved the publicity of two land covers in Bangalore, totaling more than 2 acres during his tenure as Chief Minister at Kumaraswamy from June 2006 to October 2007.
According to the details of the case, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) acquired a Padma-owned land in 1999. Despite the compensation, Padma illegally sold the land to a third party, violating the Karnataka Land (Restrictions on Transfers) Act.
Later, she petitioned the Chief Minister in 2005 to abandon the acquisition, but the BDA strongly opposed it. However, then-supervised the Chase Commission and ordered the publicity in 2007.
The land was later sold for Rs 4.14 crore in 2010.
Under the Act to Prevent Corruption in Bangalore, a lawsuit was filed against Kumaraswami before a special judge and sought to prosecute the JD(S) leader and others on the grounds of his direct involvement.
Kumaraswamy challenged the FIR in Karnataka High Court in 2012, but his plea was dismissed in 2015. His appeal to the Supreme Court was also dismissed in 2016.
However, during his second term as Chief Minister from 2018 to 2019, a closure report was submitted. But the Special Judge (MPS, MLAS) rejected the closed report and summoned him in 2019.
In further legal attempts, Kumaraswami once again filed a summon order to the Karnataka High Court, which upheld the charges. He then brought the Supreme Court to the 2018 Corruption Prevention Act amendment protected him from prosecution.
Senior advocate Harin Rawal and other advocate Aman Panwar appeared in court in Karnataka, arguing in the Supreme Court that the allegations were serious and involved direct Abuse of power.
They argue that protections under the 2018 amendment do not apply to past crimes and no prosecution is required because Kumaraswami is no longer the chief minister.
Justices Dipankar Datta and Rajesh Bindal dismissed his defense on the grounds of the seriousness of the allegations, the abuse of the office for personal gain and the inappropriateness of the 2018 amendment to past crimes to ensure the proceedings of Kumaraswamy’s case.
