Bengaluru Neharu Olekar, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s MLA from Haveri in Karnataka, his two sons and several officials were convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to two years in prison on Monday.
A people’s court in Bengaluru sentenced Olekar and his sons Manjunath and Devaraj, along with five officials, and fined them ₹2,000 each. They can appeal the conviction in the high court.
The five other officials are H K Rudrappa (retired deputy director, commerce and industry), H K Kallappa (retired assistant executive engineer, Public Works Department), Shivakumar Puttaiah Kamadod (retired second division assistant, Shiggaon), Chandramohan P S (retired assistant executive engineer, PWD) and K Krishna Naik (assistant engineer, City Municiapl council, Haveri).
The MLA had abused his position as a public servant, and dishonestly and fraudulently obtained pecuniary advantage to his two children by creating false work done certificates, and ensuring that certain civil contracts were awarded to his sons, the court held.
The corruption took place between 2009 and 2011 when the previous BJP government was in power in the state. In 2012, complainant Shashidhar Mahadevappa Hallikeri had alleged that Olekar used his position to get civil contracts granted to his sons.
The BJP MLA allegedly conspired with officials to get ₹1 crore meant for the constituency diverted to himself by granting the contracts to his sons. The charge sheet filed in September 2017 also said that Olekar’s sons produced false work done certificates endorsed by the other accused to bag the contracts.
Based on the complaint, the special court had ordered the Davanagere Lokayukta police to investigate the case and submit a report. The Lokayukta police at Davangere had pressed charges against the accused, alleging that the offences were committed during 2009-11.
The MLA has been convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the others under various other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
As the sentence was less than three years, the special court granted bail to all convicts to enable them to move higher courts to challenge the conviction.