The high court recently declined to quash the proceedings against the chairman and vice-chairman of the Karnataka State Bar Council (KSBC) in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds.
The case was registered by Vidhana Soudha police based on a complaint filed by S Basavaraj, a senior advocate and member of the KSBC, who alleged misappropriation of funds during the state level conference of KSBC in Mysuru last Aug.
Vishal Raghu, chairman, Vinay Mangalekar, vice-chairman, and Puttegowda, manager and former member of the KSBC, had approached the high court, challenging the proceedings against them pending before the 3rd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bengaluru city. They claimed that the money was properly spent and on May 25, 2024, KSBC had passed a resolution to close the issue, which the complainant had also signed. However, the complainant argued that there was no resolution to close the entire issue and that there was ample evidence against the petitioners.
Justice M Nagaprasanna noted that there are certain communications made by those to whom expenditure is shown, indicating that they have received the amount. The judge emphasized that these matters need to be tested in evidence and the court would not delve into the veracity of the statements made without proper investigation.
“In the light of seriously disputed questions of fact, if this court would interfere at this stage, it would run foul of the judgment of the supreme court in the case of Kaptan Singh vs State of Uttar Pradesh, wherein high courts were asked not to quash proceedings in the absence of documents of unimpeachable character and sterling quality supporting the accused,” the judge stated, while rejecting the petition.
