BENGALURU: MV Prashanth Kumar, like his father — Channagiri BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa, is not cooperating with the investigation. The investigating agency is now planning to make Prashanth, who is in judicial custody, sit with his father face-to-face to elicit information.
The corruption case shocked the entire society and the court should send out a strong message by rejecting Prashanth’s bail petition, argued the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) of Karnataka Lokayukta before Special Court Judge B Jayantha Kumar on Saturday.
He said Prashanth tried to swallow a sheet, which purportedly contained the names of people and the money they paid, but it was recovered when he was trapped. Prashanth’s conversation with the other accused, recorded in his smartwatch, has been sent to the forensic lab.
Since the investigation is at its initial stages, bail should be denied to Prashanth till the chargesheet is filed in a month, the SPP argued. Prashanth, who is a BWSSB chief accountant, was arrested on March 2 after he was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 40 lakh for allegedly favouring an agency to get a tender from the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), where Virupakshappa was chairman.
Handing over the KSDL managing director’s statement to the court, the SPP said there are materials to show that the father and son interfered in awarding KSDL tenders, the SPP argued. Prashanth’s counsel argued that no work is pending before KSDL to give the bribe angle to the case and the Lokayukta police have flouted Section 41 of CrPC by not providing the checklist required to arrest the accused and he is entitled to bail. The court said it will pronounce the order on April 10. Meanwhile, the court handed over Madal Virupakshappa to judicial custody till April 11.
