Former Bengaluru Urban DC Manjunath moves Supreme Court for bail in corruption case

Karnataka's IAS officer J Manjunath has approached the Supreme Court against the High Court's order of August 3, denying him bail in a corruption case then probed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

The top court has agreed to hear the plea on Wednesday.

The case has invited some stinging remarks of the High Court against the ACB and and the judge had claimed to have received a threat of transfer.

On a plea by the Karnataka government, the top court had on July 18 stayed the proceedings in the High Court and termed adverse remarks as "irrelevant and detrimental" to the fair trial for the accused in a bail matter.

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Former deputy commissioner (Bengaluru Urban), Manjunath, who was arrested in the case following the remarks by the High Court on July 4, contended his bail plea was erronously dismissed by the High Court.

The petitioner has been in custody since then, even though there is absolutely no incriminating material against him, the special leave petition filed by his counsel Sanjay M Nuli said.

The counsel recently mentioned the plea before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana who agreed to hear it on Wednesday.

"Petitioner herein has been implicated in the present case based on extraneous considerations including sensationalism by media and irrelevant remarks being made by the Single Judge while hearing a bail petition filed by accused No.1 (personal assistant of the petitioner)," his plea claimed.

The petition claimed the FIR was registered in the case on May 20 and two accused were arrested the next day.