The Karnataka high court on Tuesday quashed criminal proceedings against former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Nalin Kumar Kateel in connection with a case registered against him and others, including Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, for allegedly extorting money and pressuring businesses to buy now-defunct electoral bonds.
Besides Sitharaman and Kateel, Karnataka BJP chief BY Vijayendra and unnamed officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have also been named in the FIR registered on a complaint lodged by a Bengaluru-based activist, Adarsh R Iyer, on September 28.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while allowing the petition filed by Kateel, and said, “Criminal petition is allowed. Proceedings… stand quashed qua the petitioner.”
In the FIR, the complainant alleged that between 2019 and 2023, the accused pressured companies to purchase electoral bonds worth approximately ₹8,000 crore by threatening them with ED raids. “The court has quashed the criminal proceedings against petitioner Kateel. We have filed the petition on behalf of Kateel,” senior advocate K G Raghavan said, adding Sitharaman was not a petitioner.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the complainant, argued that the allegations constituted a “classic case of extortion” as defined under law.
{{/usCountry}}Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the complainant, argued that the allegations constituted a “classic case of extortion” as defined under law.
{{/usCountry}}Raghavan, however, maintained that while the complaint might be in public interest, it failed to meet the procedural and substantive legal requirements to proceed. The court allowed the petition and quashed the proceedings against Kateel.
In February, the SC struck down electoral bonds scheme for political donations as unconstitutional for violating the right to information of voters.