SC grants bail to former Karnataka minister, keeps him out of Dharwad

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Karnataka minister and Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni in an alleged murder case committed in 2016 and directed him to remain out of Dharwad as one of the bail conditions, flouting which will result in cancellation of his bail

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Karnataka minister and Congress leader Vinay Kulkarni in an alleged murder case committed in 2016 and directed him to remain out of Dharwad as one of the bail conditions, flouting which will result in cancellation of his bail.

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Kulkarni had approached the top court for bail after he was arrested in November 2020 in connection with the murder of a BJP Zilla Panchayat leader Yogeshgouda Goudar in June 2016.

The politically sensitive case was initially probed by the Karnataka Police which filed a charge sheet claiming that the murder was committed due to a property dispute. The said charge sheet named six persons as accused. Kulkarni was not named in the charge sheet. In 2019, after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in the state, Yogesh’s family requested for a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was acceded to by the state government.

After taking over the probe, CBI roped in Kulkarni as one of the accused along with several other persons and filed supplementary chargesheets alleging that the murder was a result of a political rivalry that brewed ever since Yogesh defeated his Congress rival in the Zilla Panchayat polls in Dharwad district.

The bench of Justices UU Lalit and Ajay Rastogi on Wednesday put Kulkarni to strict terms while allowing his plea for bail. The court directed the prosecution to present Kulkarni before the trial court in the next three days where conditions for his bail shall be imposed. The top court said, “The appellant shall not enter Dharwad and will mark his presence twice a week before the officer concerned at Anti Corruption Bureau, CBI at Bengaluru.” This will be in addition to the conditions that the accused shall not impede the proceedings of the trial, pending investigation or in any manner, directly or indirectly, influence witnesses or tamper evidence. Any violation of these conditions would result in cancellation of bail, the bench added.

The petition filed by Kulkarni was taken up along with appeals filed by CBI and Karnataka government challenging an order passed by the Karnataka high court in November 2019 staying further investigation in the case by CBI. The top court had issued notice on CBI appeal on February 20, 2020 and stayed the high court order.

On Wednesday, the top court allowed the stay to continue and directed the Chief Justice of Karnataka HC to assign the matter to a two-judge bench, if rules so permit, considering the important issues in the matter. CBI had requested the top court that the matter should not be sent to the same bench that earlier dealt with the matter. The court directed the HC to take up the cases preferably within two months.

The bench clarified, “The grant of bail to the appellant shall not be construed as a discussion on merits of the case.” Moreover, it was noted that the appeals were filed against an interim order passed by the Karnataka HC which was yet to examine the merits of the petitions filed by the accused.

Already, the trial court has taken cognizance of the charge sheets filed by CBI and this was one ground for the court to consider granting bail to Kulkarni. Appearing for the Congress leader, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi stated that the investigation by CBI was meant to serve political ends and it could not start a fresh investigation on its own. Even further investigation in the case required permission of the Magistrate under Section 173(8) of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), he argued.

The CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju stated that there was telltale evidence to show Kulkarni’s role at each step of the conspiracy leading to the murder. He said that the CBI was authorized to take up further investigation in the case as crucial evidence in the form of CCTV footage had been missed out by the local police in its investigation.

The CBI took over the investigation of the case in September 2019 and has since filed two charge sheets in May 2020 and February 2021. Since his arrest in the case on November 5 last year, Kulkarni is lodged at Hindalga Central Jail in Belagavi situated in the state.