The Lokayukta police is required to set its house in order by taking measures to complete investigation within a time frame, failing which the Damocles sword of prosecution will always be hanging on the head of the public servants and defeat several of their rights, if any, said the High Court of Karnataka.
Instances galore
“This court has come across several cases where investigation has gone on for ages and no final report was filed,” observed Justice M. Nagaprasanna, adding that it speaks volumes about the lackadaisical attitude of the prosecution/Lokayukta police.
The court made these observations while rejecting petition filed by Kallappa, a retired professor of Karnatak University, Dharwad. The petitioner had sought a direction from the court to quash the disproportionate assets case being investigated against him from 2019 as the Lokayukta police are yet to complete the investigation and file a final report before the jurisdictional court.
Though one of the reasons for completion of investigation against the petitioner was non-disclosure of all his bank accounts, as he had disclosed only 20 accounts as against the total 58, unearthed during probe, the court hoped that this case would become an eye opener for speedy completion of investigation for which lack of will of the Lokayukta police has to be effaced.
For V-C post
The petitioner had complained to the court that he could not apply for the post of Vice-Chancellor due to the pendency of the investigation, as pendency of any investigation turns a person ineligible for applying for the post of Vice-Chancellor.
