Maudany Bail: Karnataka Reduces Escort Charges From Rs 15 Lac to 1.18 Lac After SC Warning

A day after the Supreme Court's strong worded warning, the Karnataka Government has revised the security bill to PDP leader Abdul Nazer Maudani, who is an accused in Bengaluru blast case.

Standing Counsel for the State of Karnataka had submitted a revised expense list to accompany Maudani, who has been permitted by the Court to attend his son's wedding ceremony in Kerala. The State Government brought down the expense from 14.80 lakh to 1.18 lakh. After the Supreme Court's intervention, Government is now charging only the TA & DA for the security persons.

A bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and Nageshvar Rao has gone through the list and accepted the changes. "It's not an affidavit nor an undertaking. But we are taking it on record," the Bench said. Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Haris Biran who appeared for Maudani submitted: "Now they revised the Charges from 15 to 1.18 lakh. We don't mind paying that. Last time when he (Maudani) visited his ailing mother, they charged only 18,000". The Bench then replied to Bhushan: "Now they added one lakh to that!"

After accepting the new table, the Bench asked Maudani to pay the slashed amount for escort. According to the Karnataka counsel, this revised table has been prepared as per the 2017 circular on allowances.

At the same time, the Court turned down Prashant Bhushan's request to reduce the number of security persons from nineteen to four. Last time, there were only four police persons to accompany Maudani to Kerala.

Considering the delay in visit caused as a result of the dispute on security bill, the Court agreed to extend the number of days that Maudani can stay in Kerala for. "He shall be allowed to go to Kerala from 6 to 19th August," the Bench said.

When the Counsel appearing for Karnataka pointed out that the marriage and reception will be over by August 13, Justice S.A. Bobde replied : "He is virtually under arrest. He has no freedom."

The statement submitted by Karnataka Government shows total charges for ten days escort as Rs. 1,18,295. This includes Rs. 18,045 as the GST.