High court rejects Shivakumar’s plea to quash CBI case in illegal assets case

BENGALURU: In a major setback for Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, the High Court of Karnataka has rejected his application to quash an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a disproportionate assets case. With this, the interim stay on the investigation is also lifted and the CBI can question Shivakumar in the DA case.

A single-judge bench of Justice K Natarajan, which heard the petition in detail, noted that the plea to quash the FIR was filed at a very late stage as the CBI was almost through with its investigation and would complete it soon. At this juncture, it would not be appropriate to quash the FIR, the court noted.

The court also directed the CBI to complete its investigation within three months and file a chargesheet. It gave liberty to the petitioner to approach the court if there are any lacunae in the chargesheet.

While Sandesh Chowta represented Shivakumar, Prasanna Kumar appeared for the CBI. The CBI, in its FIR, claimed disproportionate assets of Shivakumar grew by 44.93 per cent between April 2014 and April 2018.