Karnataka Legislature panel finds no evidence of bribery against BJP MLA
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Mar 1: Exactly a year after Karnataka Lokayukta had trapped ruling BJP MLA Y Sampangi while allegedly ``accepting” a bribe of Rs 5 lakh in cheque, including Rs 50,000 in chash in front of the state Legislators’ Home on January 29 last year, a seven-member legislature panel headed by the present assembly speaker K G Bopaiah has given clean chit and recommened that the bribery scandal be treated as ``closed.
The Bopaiah panel, has on the contrary, in its report tabled in the state assembly on Monday has recommended that the businessman Hussain Muheen Farooq, who had allegedly paid a Rs 5 lakh bribe, including Rs 50,000 in cash, for settling a civil dispute, should be ``censured” for making ``false charges’’ and thereby ``bringing disrepute’’ to the BJP MLA from KGF in Kolar district.
The committee took exception to Farooq’s failure to appear before it despite serving three notices to offer evidence on the bribery charge and held that the failure should be treated as ``disobedience of the committee’s order and contempt of the House.”
The panel said it was not possible for it to decide whether Sampangi ``committed any act of indispline or misused his office as a legislator” and suggested that the complainant Farooq should be hauled for contempt of the House and censured.
The Lokayukta police, who had registered a case against BJP’s KGF MLA under the Prevention of Corruption Act following the complaint and had caught him red-handed with the money, which resulted in the constitution of a special legislature committee by the then assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar.
The Bopaiah panel, in its report tabled in the assembly, said ``there was no evidence before it to prove misconduct, and misuse of officials, special officers and facilities of the assembly by Sampangi.”
``Appearance of Farooq before the panel and giving his statement would have helped the committee to conduct the detailed inquiry. Despite issuing several notices, Farooq failed to appear before the panel,” the report said.
Quoting the book of M N Kaul and S L Shakdher, on``Practice and Procedures of Parliament,” the panel said Farooq has committed Contempt of the House, for showing disobedience of the order of the committee. As the incident has been discussed widely in the public and the media, the committee has said there is a need to set up a committee permanently to probe into similar cases in the future and submit reports.