BREAKING| Karnataka Loyayukta Moves Supreme Court Against Interim Pre-Arrest Bail Granted To BJP MLA Madal Virupakshappa

The Karnataka Lok Ayukta has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Karnataka High Court's order granting interim anticipatory bail to BJP MLA in a bribery case.

The matter was mentioned today morning before the Chief Justice of India for urgent hearing. When CJI DY Chandrachud agreed to list the matter on Friday, the counsel sought for an earlier date, if possible today itself. CJI then pointed out that he is heading a Constitution Bench hearing today and asked the counsel to mention the matter before Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (the second senior judge).

The matter was later mentioned before Justice Kaul, who in turn questioned the urgency. Justice Kaul then ordered to list the matter "as early as possible", without specifying any date.

By way of background, complaint was lodged before the Lokayuktha Police alleging that Virupakshappa demanded illegal gratification to process a certain tender in Karnataka Soaps & Detergents Ltd (KSDL).

Pursuant to the complaint, the Lokayuktha Police registered an FIR for offences under section 7(a) of PC(Amended) Act, 2018 against the petitioner and others. Later, Virupakshappa's son V Prashanth Madal and other accused were allegedly caught red-handed accepting a graft of Rs 40 lakh. It has also been alleged that over Rs 8 crore was recovered by Lokayukta from the MLA's son in the first week of March.

On March 7, a single bench of the High Court allowed him interim anticipator bail on condition to furnish a personal bond of Rupees 5 lakhs and not to the enter the office of Karnataka Soaps & Detergents Ltd (KSDL) till further orders.

Later, a civil court in Bengaluru passed an ex-parte ad-interim order restraining several media houses from publishing any "defamatory opinion" against Virupakshappa in relation to the corruption allegations.