Karnataka High Court quashes electoral bonds ‘extortion’ FIR against BJP leader Nalin Kumar Kateel
The party’s former state unit chief, among others, was booked for allegedly misusing the scheme to extort money from companies.
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The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday quashed a first information report against Bharatiya Janata Party’s former state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel for alleged extortion in connection with the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme, Live Law reported.
The order was passed by Justice M Nagaprasanna who had earlier stayed the investigation in the case after Kateel challenged the registration of the first information report in the matter.
Kateel was the BJP Karnataka chief between 2019 and 2023.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is among other BJP leaders named as co-accused in the case.
The court, however, restricted the quashing of the FIR only to Kateel as other accused persons, including Sitharaman, have not yet filed a petition against it, The Hindu reported.
In September, the Karnataka Police had booked Kateel, Sitharaman and others for allegedly misusing the electoral bond scheme to extort money from companies.
The FIR was filed based on directions from a Bengaluru court under the Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to punishment for extortion and criminal conspiracy, read with acts done with common intention.
The directions of the Bengaluru court had come on a complaint by activist Adarsh R Iyer of the non-governmental organisation Janaadhikaara Sangharsha Parishath.
Iyer claimed that Sitharaman and officials of the Enforcement Directorate connived with leaders and office bearers of the BJP to commit “extortion under the guise and garb of electoral bonds and benefited...
