BENGALURU, Dec 3 : The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed a criminal case against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP National President JP Nadda, Karnataka BJP Chief Nalin Kumar Kateel, and others, filed in connection with alleged irregularities in the Electoral Bonds scheme.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, who had earlier stayed the investigation, ruled that the allegations were baseless and dismissed the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police.
The FIR stemmed from a private complaint filed by activist Adarsh R Iyer of the NGO Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath, which accused BJP leaders of extortion and benefiting illegally under the now-invalidated scheme.
In his detailed judgment, Justice Nagaprasanna observed that the claims of extortion were “a figment of imagination” and that the complainant lacked legal standing to file such a case.
“The Supreme Court holds where the allegations made in the FIR, even if taken at face value, do not constitute a prima facie offence, such crime should be nipped in the bud… What the complainant projects is a huge hocus-pocus, but alas, he has no locus,” Justice Nagaprasanna said, invoking Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to quash the case.
The FIR, filed after the XLII Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Bengaluru took cognisance of the complaint, accused BJP leaders and Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials of extorting private firms and channeling funds to the BJP through electoral bonds.
The complainant alleged that raids on companies like Vedanta, Sterlite, and Aurobindo Pharma were used to coerce their proprietors into donating to the BJP. However, the court found no evidence to substantiate these claims.
Justice Nagaprasanna pointed out that for an offence under Section 383 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), there must be proof of fear induced to part with property, which was absent in this case.
“The meeting of ingredients of Section 383 IPC is a figment of the complainant’s imagination,” the judgment stated.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing Iyer, argued that citizens have the right to set criminal law into motion for grave offences. However, Senior Advocate KG Raghavan, appearing for Kateel, countered that extortion allegations must be made by the aggrieved party, and no such individual was identified in this case.
The court sided with Raghavan, stating that extortion is a “person-specific” offence and cannot be initiated by an unrelated party.
The court’s decision effectively closes the case, dismissing allegations of extortion linked to the controversial Electoral Bonds scheme, which the Supreme Court had struck down in February this year.
(UNI)
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