Release Prahlad brother, nephew: K'taka HC

NT Correspondent Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court on Monday ordered the release of the brother and nephew of Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and New and Renewable Energy Prahlad Joshi in a cheating case. Joshi’s brother Gopal and nephew Ajay allegedly took Rs 2.5 crores from former JD(S) MLA Devanand Chavan's family, promising him the BJP ticket to contest from the Vijayapura Lok Sabha constituency. However, the alleged promise didn’t come to pass as incumbent MP Ramesh Jigajinagi landed the ticket and won the seat for the fourth time.

Justice M Nagaprasanna justified the release on the grounds that the accused father and son duo had accepted that they took the money and had in principle agreed to return it. The judge had been responding to a petition by the accused seeking quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) against them. The duo had been arrested last week. The arrests had been made in response to a complaint by Sunita, the wife of Devanand Chavan, at the Basaveshwara Nagar police in Bengaluru. She said that it was her money that went into paying the bribe and she wanted it returned.