Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 27: The state high court, which had given its green signal to the Anti Corruption Bureau to go ahead with its probe into alleged illegal sanction of land against former deputy chief minister, R Ashok, stayed the probe for five more weeks on Wednesday September 26.

On Tuesday, a single judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice R B Budihal had vacated the stay issued to the first information report filed by the bureau earlier, and asked the anti corruption bureau to go ahead with the investigation. But in an interim application filed in the high court on Wednesday, advocates for Ashok stated that they would be filing an appeal in the Supreme Court against the said order and sought stay for six weeks against any probe by anti corruption bureau officials. Justice Budihal upheld the request and stayed the operation of the probe for five weeks.

It is alleged that when he was the president of Land Regularization Committee during the period 1998 to 2006, Ashok had sanctioned Bagar Hukum agricultural lands to ineligible beneficiaries illegally. A person named Anand had complained to Anti Corruption Bureau on the basis of which first information report had been registered.

Ashok had approached the high court seeking to quash the said first information report. The high court, which initially stayed the first information report, later vacated it and permitted the anti corruption bureau to go ahead with its investigation.