Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted the BJP over the statement of a Karnataka High Court judge hearing a matter related to a bribery case that he is being threatened with transfer. Rahul also shared a video of the part of court proceedings during which the judge had said he was threatened with the transfer after his remark against the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) that it had become a “collection centre”.
Justice HP Sandesh also said he is unfazed and added, “I will bell the cat, even at the cost of my judgeship.”
“A HC judge has been threatened for exposing the BJP’s corrupt Government in Karnataka. Institution after institution is being bulldozed by the BJP. Each of us must stand with those fearlessly doing their duty (sic),” Rahul said on a social media platform.
The Congress has been attacking the BJP Government in Karnataka on the issue of corruption. On Monday, Rahul had demanded the sacking of Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai to ensure a fair investigation in the police recruitment scam.
In the less than two-minute-long video of court proceedings held on Monday, Justice Sandesh also said, “Your ADGP is so powerful... and some person spoke with one of our High Court judges who came and sat with me and cited an example of transfer of one of another judge to another district. I will not hesitate to mention the name of the judge also. He came and sat by the side and said there is a threat to this court.”
Justice Sandesh had made observations against the ACB last week and its functioning while hearing a bail plea of PS Mahesh, a deputy Tahsildar in the office of the Bengaluru City Deputy Commissioner. Two staff members of the office were arrested for receiving a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in exchange for favourable order in a land dispute.
The court had taken objection as to how senior officers were being protected and only junior staffers were being persecuted in the case. In a related development on Monday, Manjunath J, an IAS officer and former Bengaluru City Deputy Commissioner, was arrested in the same case by ACB.
