The Karnataka high court on Wednesday granted former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and his wife, Anitha, exemption from appearing before the Lok Ayukta special court on Thursday in connection with a summons pertaining to charges of corruption.
The high court also reserved for Thursday its orders on anticipatory bail petitions filed by Kumaraswamy and Anitha.
The Lok Ayukta court summons relate to a complaint filed by advocate Vinod Kumar alleging that Kumaraswamy had favoured Vishwabharathi Housing Cooperative Society in a land denotification case. The society had in turn allotted a site to Anitha.
Earlier when the court began its sitting, counsel for the couple, Hazmat Pasha, requested justice L Narayana Swamy in the high court to take up the anticipatory bail plea. The judge questioned the need to take up the case so early. He said he would hear the case only after hearing matter listed prior to it.
Kumaraswamy and Anitha’s petitions reached 20 minutes later. Pasha pressed for interim relief in the wake of the private complaint coming up for hearing in the Lokayukta court on Thursday.
The counsel submitted that as there was a likelihood of an arrest warrant being issued against Kumaraswamy and his wife when they appear before the special Lokayukta court, the duo needed to be granted interim bail.
He said the trial court judge had issued summons without holding an inquiry into the allegations. Even a single statement had not been recorded completely, he pointed out.
Pasha claimed that Anitha was a member of the Vishwabharathi Housing society much before Kumaraswamy became chief minister and she had also returned the site.
Complainant’s counsel RL Patil submitted that the anticipatory bail was nothing but a reason to avoid personal appearance in the court. The attitude of the petitioners is to avoid appearing in the court at all costs, he said.
Patil said there was no threat of arrest and the interim bail application was only to avoid appearance in the court. He also said though not a single statement had been recorded completely, there was substance on record to issue the summons.
