Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 21: The state criminal investigation department (CID), which has made a firm resolve to crush the racket built by Shivakumar Swamy, nick-named 'Question Paper King', over the years for leaking question papers and make money out of it, has invoked provisions of the Karnataka Control of Organized Crime Act, 2000 (KCOOCA) against Swamy and rest of the accused in the case. CID has made use of this act for the first time in an investigation being conducted by it, and this will effectively nullify all efforts being made by Shivakumar Swamy to secure bail, sources said.

Shivakumar Swamy

Under the provisions of the said act, CID will be able to impound the properties of the ten arrested accused, and others who are on the run including Shivakumar Swamy. CID director general of police, Kishore Chandra, informed media persons on Wednesday April 20 that no bail applications can henceforth be decided by courts without seeking objections from CID. He said that Shivakumar Swamy, who is the prime accused, has been involved with the racket of leaking question papers since the last ten years, and therefore, his crime falls under organized crimes. He explained that a decision to register the case under KCOOCA was taken after verifying the cases registered against Swamy from 2008 to 2016, and the court has been kept informed of this decision.

The DGP revealed that during the raid on the house of Shivakumar Swamy, the officials came to know about cases registered against him in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014 in Vijayanagar, Chandra Layout, Malleshwara, Gubbi, New Extension Tumakuru and Nandini Layout police stations. He said that Swamy had adopted question paper leakage as his major occupation and source of income. He said that Swamy has applied for anticipatory bail in the court, adding that his application is set to be rejected as the case has been brought under KCOOCA.

"The same act covers arrested physical education teachers, Manjunath, Anil Kumar, and Satish, former special officer of medical education minister, Obalaraju, PWD engineer, Ranganath, superintendent, Rudrappa, tutorial operator, Muralidhar, real estate businessman, Anil Kumar, and PhD research scholars, K Nagendra and Timme Gowda. We are trying to find out the whereabouts of Shivakumar Swamy, who is hiding," he stated.