Justice Vishwanath Shetty should not be appointed as Karnataka Lokayukta: AAP

Team Udayavani, Jan 11, 2017, 11:33 AM IST

Bengaluru:  “The proverbial last nail in the coffin of Lokayukta was driven as soon as the Congress government snatched away the power to investigate and gave it away to the handmaiden called ACB. But it has still comes as a shock, to the people of the state, that the CM has finalized the name of Justice Vishwanath Shetty for the post of Karnataka Lokayukta,” said Aam Admi Party (AAP) in a press conference held at press club in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Even though the Lokayukta has no investigative power, it still has some 2300 cases pending, including the Arkavathy Denotification case against the CM himself. In addition it has the corruption cases against State Ministers R V Deshpande, K G George and Opposition BJP Leaders like B S Yeddyurappa , Katta Subramanya Naidu and Krishnaiah Shetty. To take all these cases to logical conclusion without being politically influenced, a fearless and clean judge was needed. Appointing an Advocate, who has been a defense counsel of Power Minister D K Shivakumar and the most corrupt mining baron, G Janardhana Reddy in various cases of corruption, is a classic case of a fox being given the job of guarding a flock of sheep, AAP alleged.

The party leader said, the name of Vishwanath Shetty was also heard the Judicial Layout scam, where he was holding a residential site No. 71 in R T Nagar but still applied for and got another site No. 1395 in the Judicial Layout on the basis of a false affidavit. The name of Justice S R Nayak was rejected by the Governor for this very reason and Justice Shivaraj Patil had resigned earlier on same allegation from Lokayukta Post. Aam Aadmi Party alleges that the tacit approval of Opposition Leader Jagadish Shettar to the proposal of Chief Minister, to recommend the name of Vishwanath Shetty for the post of Lokayukta is an open understanding between the two parties to render the office of Lokayukta totally toothless and to bury the cases against their party leaders.

“Whereas both Congress and BJP are trying hard to decimate the Lokayukta, JD(s) is behaving as if it has not role in this episode. AAP warns that it will not remain a silent spectator and allow such machinations. AAP further demands that Justice Vishwanath Shetty should not be appointed as Lokayukta and a clean, fearless person must be appointed to the post,” AAP said.