Case against Madal Virupakshappa quashed; son to face trial

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A single judge bench of the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday quashed the bribery case pending against former BJP MLA from Channagiri, Madal Virupakshappa.

The case was set in motion after his son, Prashanth Madal, a KAS officer, was caught accepting a bribe of Rs.40 lakh allegedly on behalf of his father. Subsequently, more cash was found in his residence.

“Prima facie it is the son who has to answer the allegations in a full-blown trial,” the HC said quashing the case against Madal Virupakshappa.

Justice M Nagaprasanna in his judgement quashed the case pending before the special court for sitting and former legislators said that there is no evidence against Madal Virupakshappa but his son has to answer for the cash found.

Allowing the petition filed by the then chairman of the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), the HC said, “The son is prima facie guilty of demand, acceptance and is answerable to the cash found in his house or his office. If the petitioner (Madal Virupakshappa) is nowhere found in any of the instances, he cannot be permitted to be prosecuted merely because he is the father of the accused no.2 (Prashanth Madal).”

The complaint registered by the Lokayukta police on March 2, 2023 under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) does not constitute the ingredients of offences under Section 7 and 7A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, the HC said.

Madal, the accused number one in the case, was charged under Section 7(A) and 7(B) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While Prashanth Madal is the second accused in the case, Siddesh, Nicholas and Gangadhar are the other accused. The HC said that in the entire episode, there was no evidence of the offence committed by the senior Madal.

“Since no offence in even the remotest sense was found, permitting proceedings against the ex-MLA would become an abuse of the process of law, degenerate into harassment and ultimately result in miscarriage of justice. The son is prima facie guilty of demand, acceptance and is answerable to the cash found in his house or his office,” the HC said allowing the proceedings to continue against Prashanth.