Extortion racket: bail to four but release deferred to Sep 16

The Karnataka High Court today granted bail but deferred to September 16 the release of four persons, including former Lokayukta Public Relations Officer Syed Riaz, who are in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in an extortion racket in the ombudsman's office.
Justice Narayanaswamy deferred their release to September 16 after a Special Investigation Team argued against granting bail to them prior to filing of the charge sheet.
Apart from Riaz, three other accused who were granted bail are television journalist M B Srinivasa Gowda, Shankare Gowda and Ashok Kumar.
Counsel for Riaz submitted that the arrest of his client was in violation of Sections 41 (when police may arrest without warrant) and 41(A) (notice of appearance before police officer) of Criminal Prodecure Code.

"The sections clearly states that no arrests should be made of any persons without issuing a notice but SIT did so in violation of the law under the CrPC provisions," he said.
He also submitted that since the imprisonment punishment was for less than three-year period, the charges against Riaz was not that serious.

SIT, in its counter, submitted that the accused should be granted bail only after a charge sheet had been filed against all the four accused and sought time till September 16 to do so.
Justice Narayanaswamy then directed SIT to file charge sheet against the four on or before that date.

The alleged scam came to light after Lokayukta Superintendent of Police Sonia Narang wrote to the Registrar about the complaint she received from a person who alleged that someone from the Lokayukta office demanded Rs one crore in bribe to avoid a raid.
Bhaskar Rao, a former High Court Chief Justice, had rejected the charges that his son was involved in the racket and said he would resign if the charge was proved correct.
Ashwin Rao, Lokayukta's son, was in July arrested by SIT. The issue had raised a storm both inside and outside the state legislature and there was growing pressure from opposition parties and various organisations for removal of Rao.