Enough evidence to prosecute him, says Lokayukta

Updated on: 30 January,2009 08:47 AM IST |
Savie Karnel |

For the first time an MLA has been caught red-handed accepting bribe

For the first time an MLA has been caught red-handed accepting bribe. What next? Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde hopes he can be prosecuted for seeking "return of investment made during elections".u00a0

"Since he is an MLA, the speaker has to give sanction to go ahead with the prosecution. I was a presiding judge in a Madhya Pradesh case where we had ruled that the speaker should give the sanction. In case of a cabinet minister, the governor should give the sanction independently," said Hegde.

'We have witness'

He is confident that the evidence he had would be enough to prosecute the MLA. "We have the voice recording taken by the complainant on his phone. Besides that, we have a witness to testify when Sampangi took the bribe. Soon after he got the bribe, Sampangi called the KGF police and asked them to close the case. This clearly indicates that he took money in return for an official favour," he said.

The Lokayukta is hopeful that during investigation, they will get more evidence. "This is just one case where we have caught Sampangi. There may be other cases which may come out during investigations."

Along with Sampangi, circle inspector and sub inspector of Andersonpet police station in KGF were also arrested. The MLA was booked under Sections 7 and 12 of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Lokayukta had caught former Karwar MLA, again from the BJP, Gangadhar Bhat. He had asked for commission from a Public Works Department (PWD) contractor, but he was not caught accepting bribe. The trial is on.