A single-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court Monday stayed proceedings against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, former Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel, and unnamed ED officials in the ‘electoral bonds extortion case’ registered by the Bengaluru police.
Kateel had approached the Karnataka High Court for a stay on the investigation and further proceedings in the case.
In the petition moved by Kateel, senior advocate K G Raghavan argued that no case of extortion was made out in the complaint. Prashant Bhushan, the senior counsel for the private complainant, argued that the electoral bonds scheme involved a classic case of extortion, where the ED had generated fear among some companies to buy electoral bonds.
“Section 383 mandates that any informant who approaches the concerned Court or the jurisdictional police should have been put into fear and due to such fear, he should have delivered some property to the accused,” the HC observed.
“It is only then that extortion may be established prima facie, against that accused qua the victim. It is settled principle of law that criminal law can be set into motion by any person, but there are provisions under the IPC that they can be set into motion only by the aggrieved to illustrate, offence of assault, offence of thieving, under Section 379 of the IPC, or extortion under Section 383 of the IPC,” it pointed out.
In its interim order, the Karnataka HC ruled, “Prima facie, the ingredients of Section 383 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) are not met in the case at hand, for it to become an offence under Section 384 of the IPC. Therefore, permitting further investigation, into the aforesaid crime would become an abuse of the process of the law… Therefore, further investigation in the case at hand shall remain stayed, till the next date of hearing. List the matter on 22.10.2024 for further hearing at 2.30 pm.”
All matters presented by Bhushan and others for justifying a probe in the case of alleged extortion through the electoral bonds scheme will be considered during a post-Dussehra vacation hearing of the high court, the single-judge bench indicated.
The Bengaluru police had registered the FIR Saturday after a private complaint filed by activist Adarsh Iyer of the NGO Janadhikara Sangharsha Parishath was referred to the police by a local court for investigation. The Tilaknagar police in Bengaluru had registered the FIR under Sections 384 and 120 B of the Indian Penal Code.
The complainant alleged that the Union finance minister and others extorted funds to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore from corporates through the electoral bonds scheme by holding out the threat of action by the Enforcement Directorate.
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