In a relief for union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Karnataka high court ordered an interim stay on any further investigation based on an FIR registered in Bengaluru in an electoral bonds-linked extortion and criminal conspiracy case against her and others.
“Section 383 of IPC mandates that any informant who approaches court or jurisdictional police should have been put through fear... It is only then that extortion can be prima facie established. Criminal law can be set into motion by any person... Who is the complainant here becomes significant,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said. “In this case, permitting further proceedings at least until objections have been filed will become an abuse of the process of law.”The order came on a petition by Nalin Kumar Kateel, former Karnataka BJP president and Sitharaman’s co-accused in the complaint filed by Adarsh R Iyer, a Bengaluru-based RTI activist.
The court said, "he (Iyer) has not been threatened to part with any property. If the complainant in the case at hand wants to cite Section 384 of IPC, he should be an aggrieved informant, which he is not."
The complaint alleges corporate entities were coerced into purchasing electoral bonds (EBs), which were then encashed by BJP netas for political purposes. It claims over £800 mn was illegally collected through EBs. The police have charged Nirmala, BJP chief Nadda and others under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by multiple individuals with common intent).
The complaint accuses Nirmala, ED and BJP members of misusing their authority by conducting raids, seizures and arrests targeting corporate entities, ultimately resulting in coerced purchases of EBs. The FIR alleges aluminium and copper companies of Sterlite and Vedanta groups were forced to buy EBs worth £23 mn between April 2019 and Nov 2023. This apart, raids on Aurobindo Pharma Group led to purchase of EBs totalling £4.95 mn between July 2022 and Nov 2023, the FIR alleges.