The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Bengaluru has filed a chargesheet against six persons, including two senior prison officials of Karnataka and V.K. Sasikala, a close aide of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, in a corruption case of illegally providing preferential facilities when Sasikala was lodged in the Central prison in Bengaluru while she was serving a sentence in a corruption case against Jayalalithaa.
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A submission about filling of the chargesheet was made before a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj on February 2 during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by K.S. Gita, a 65-year-old social worker and educationist from Chennai.
ACB counsel Manmohan P.N. told the bench that the chargesheet was filed on January 7, 2022 after the State Government on December 30, 2021 accorded sanction, for prosecution of two senior prison officials Krishna Kumar and Anitha R.
Krishna Kumar was the Chief Superintendent and Anitha the Superintendent of the Central prison at Parappana Agrahara in Bengaluru when the illegal facilities were provided to Sasikala and her sister-in-law Ilavarasi, who was also serving a sentence in the prison.
While Sasiskala and Ilavarasi have been have been arraigned as accused number 5 and 6, respectively, Krishna Kumar and Anitha have been arraigned as accused numbers 1 and 2, respectively in the chargesheet. B. Suresh and Gajaraja Makanooru, both associated with the prison, have been arraigned as accused 3 and 4.
They have been booked under Sections 465, 468, 471, 120B and 109 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to forgery, using as genuine the forged documents and electronic records, criminal conspiracy, abatement, and Sections 13(1)(c) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The PIL was filed early in 2021 complaining that the ACB had registered a First Information Report in 2018 on illegally providing preferential facilities in prison to Sasikala and Ilavarasi, but had not completed the investigation even after three years.
On June 11, 2021, the High Court had disposed of the petition giving two months to ACB to complete the probe and file the final investigation report in the jurisdictional court.
In August 2021, the ACB sought additional time to file the investigation report while pointing out that its requests for sanction for prosecution of public servants were pending before the competent authority of the State Government. Subsequently, the court had expressed anguish over the delay on the part of the Karnataka Government in considering the ACB’s request for grant of sanction.
