Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has directed the State government to submit a final report within two months into the FIR registered by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) into alleged preferential treatment given in Parapana Agrahara prison to expelled AIADMK supremo and close aide to former Tamilnadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order after the state government informed the court that an FIR was registered by the ACB in 2018 and four months time was required to file the report in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The court sought report from the government while hearing a petition filed by K S Gita, a 65-year-old social worker and an educationist from Chennai.
The petitioner’s counsel pointed out that a retired IAS officer, Vinay Kumar, had conducted an inquiry and submitted a 295-page report with several findings on the allegations of preferential treatment to Sasikala and her sister-in-law, Ilavarasi, who was also undergoing sentence in the prison in the same case.
Noting that there was a delay in the investigation, the court declined to give four months time sought by the government to file the final report. It directed the state government to submit the final report as expeditiously as possible within two months.