Court rejects former Karnataka minister's plea in graft case

Former Karnataka BJP minister Murugesh Nirani Tuesday suffered a set as the high court rejected his plea to quash a corruption case against him

Nirani moved the high court for quashing a charge sheet filed in the Lokayukta (ombudsman) court here that as industries minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party government, he illegally ordered cancellation of an industrial site allotted to an entrepreneur.

The charge sheet followed Lokayukta probe into the complaint by the entrepreneur Alam Pasha that Nirani had in 2009 illegally cancelled the allotment of about 26 acres of land near Electronic City in east Bangalore to set up an industrial unit.

Dismissing Nirani's plea, Justice Anand Byrareddy said that the Lokayukta court was yet to take cognizance of the charge sheet and hence the high court would not intervene at this stage of the case.

Besides Nirani, the Lokayukta police have filed cases against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and three officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, as Pasha has named them in his complaint.

Nirani was industries minister in the BJP governments headed by Yeddyurappa, D. V. Sadananada Gowda and Jagadish Shettar.

Though a staunch follower of Yeddyurappa, Nirani did not leave BJP like his leader and unsuccessfully contested the May 5 assembly poll in which BJP was voted out of power.