Karnataka HC quashes case against ED officers accused of forcing witnesses to give statements against CM Siddaramaiah in Valmiki Corp case

The Karnataka High Court on Friday (Nov 8) quashed the prosecution filed against two Enforcement Directorate officials investigating the Valmiki Corporation case who were accused of coercing a witness to give statements against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

A single judge bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna has granted a request filed by Deputy Director and Deputy Director of ED, Manoj Mittal and Murali Kannan, after the complainant in the Kallesh B case filed a memo in the court, stating that he did not want to pursue the complaint further to research.

The court said: “The memo submitted by the complainant shows that he does not want to pursue the complaint. In view of the memo filed by defendant 2, the offense must be expunged. Matter removed and destroyed.”

The two officers were charged under sections 3(5) (common intention), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

After registering FIR, the duo had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the case. On July 23, the Supreme Court in its interim order had stayed the investigation against the petitioners. During the hearing, the court then orally noted “When officers are doing their duty if you keep registering FIR against them…no one will be doing their duty.”

The court in its July order had said: “Had the hearing taken place without the registration of the ECIR, the aforesaid observations of the learned Advocate General, which may or may not have been mentioned above, would have been worthy of acceptance. But the fact is that the ECIR is registered and in furtherance of the registration of the ECIR, the officials of the Enforcement Directorate take steps to investigate or question the complainant. It is an established fact that the investigation or interrogation of the complainant on 16.07.2024 results in a search of the office of the Company on 18/19.07.2024. As noted above, a crime is registered, then an ECIR is registered and the officers of the Enforcement Directorate, in performance of their official duties, summon the complainant, question him and investigate the matter. The statement being recorded leads the officers to search the Corporation’s office”.

It further said: “When these acts of these petitioners are mentioned, the officers cannot be called anything other than their acts in the discharge of their official duties. As regards the performance of official duties, if the subject of the crime is allowed to be investigated for an offense punishable under Article 351(2) and 352 of the BNS, it would become an abuse of the legal process in 2023, just as in the performance of their official duties, these official duties of the officials of the Enforcement Directorate would be investigated by the competent police. In light of the foregoing, due to special circumstances, I deem it appropriate to postpone all further investigation in Crime No. 166/2024 against these petitioners until the next hearing.“.

Case Title: Manoj Mittal & ANR AND Karnataka State

Appearance: ASG SV Raju a/w CGC Madhukar Deshpande for petitioners.

Case No: WP 19489/2024

Citation number: 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 462