The Karnataka High Court quashed the FIR on Friday and subsequent proceedings against two Enforcement Directorate officers involved in investigating the multi-crore Valmiki Corporation scam.
The officers were accused of pressuring a senior government official to implicate Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the case.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna dismissed the case after the original complainant, Kallesh B, former additional director of the State Social Welfare Department, informed the court that he no longer wished to pursue the matter. The court subsequently ruled that the FIR and all related proceedings would be “quashed.”
Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, representing the ED, indicated he had no objection to the withdrawal of the complaint. Justice Nagaprasanna remarked, “The learned counsel for the second respondent, who is the complainant, files a memo…indicating that the complainant does not want to pursue the matter further and would like to withdraw his complaint. In light of the said memo being filed, the crime requires to be obliterated.”
In July, Kallesh B had alleged that during his questioning by the ED, he was coerced into naming arrested former Congress minister B. Nagendra and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Following these allegations, the court had temporarily stayed the FIR against the ED officers, stating that allowing further proceedings would constitute an abuse of the legal process.
Justice Nagaprasanna had previously emphasized, “If the discharge of duties of every officer is investigated like this, then no one will work… These innovative filmy-style ideas will not be allowed here. Tomorrow, no investigating officer will be safe. You are opening a Pandora’s Box.”
The FIR against the ED officers, Murali Kannan and Manoj Mittal, was registered on July 22 after Kallesh B’s claims. The controversy escalated when Nagendra was arrested on July 12 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and remanded to 14 days of judicial custody.
The Valmiki Corporation scam surfaced in May after Chandrashekhar, an accounts superintendent at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, died by suicide. He left a note alleging the misappropriation of welfare funds. In response, the Karnataka government established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the claims, while the ED initiated its own inquiry.
According to the ED, approximately ₹90 crore was unlawfully transferred from the Valmiki Corporation’s bank account to various unauthorized accounts. The quashing of the FIR against the ED officials marks a significant development in the ongoing investigation.
