The High Court of Karnataka has termed as illegal the action of the Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range) transferring the probe of the 2021 case on the blast at a quarry site at Hunasodu near Shivamogga to Cybercrime, Economic Offences, and Narcotics (CEN) police station.
The court also quashed the criminal proceedings and the charge sheet filed by the CEN police station sleuths against three of the accused persons in the case.
However, the court gave liberty to the jurisdictional Shivamogga Rural police to conduct the investigation and submit the final report in accordance with law in the criminal case registered in 2021.
Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order recently while allowing the petitions filed by three accused persons – Manjunath Sai and P. Prithvinath Sai of Andhra Pradesh, and B.V. Sudhakara of Shivamogga.
The explosives, in a truck parked near the quarry site, exploded on January 21, 2021, killing six people. The IGP (Eastern Range) had on the same day transferred the probe to Shivamogga CEN police station from the Shivamogga Rural police station.
However, the court noted that government notifications on CEN police station jurisdiction authorises them to probe crimes registered under the laws related to cybercrimes, economic offences, narcotics, and only the offences under Sections 420, 409, 468, 467, 471, 498 (A-E) of IPC, where the amount involved is above ₹25 lakh.
The court pointed out that the CEN police stations have no jurisdiction to investigate the cases registered under the provisions of the Explosives Act, the Explosive Substances Act, and Section 286, 304 of IPC, under which the case was registered in respect of blast occurred in the quarry site.
“In the absence of source of power to CEN to investigate the alleged offences, the direction issued by the IGP (Eastern Range) handing over the investigation to the CEN police station is one without authority of law. Consequently, the conducting of investigation and submitting the final report by the CEN Police Station stands vitiated,” the court observed.
