New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets to known sources of income by the former Prime Minister, Deve Gowda, and his family members.

A Bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice P.P. Naolekar and Justice Dalveer Bhandari dismissed as withdrawn the special leave petition filed by K.V. Amarnath, a social worker, against the Karnataka High Court judgment of December 1998 rejecting his plea.

The petitioner alleged that Mr. Gowda and his sons, H.D. Balakrishna Gowda, H.D. Revanna and H.D. Kumaraswamy had accumulated disproportionate assets to the tune of crores of rupees and thereby they had committed various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

After the High Court dismissed his writ petition seeking registration of a complaint and a CBI probe, he preferred the SLP.

Mala fide intentions

On behalf of the State of Karnataka it was submitted that the petition was filed with mala fide intentions after Mr. Deve Gowda ceased to be the Prime Minister.

The allegations were general, vague, ambiguous, contradictory and unfounded and not even prima facie supported by reliable evidence.

The petitioner had ignored to mention even the dates when the properties were alleged to have been wrongfully acquired by Mr. Gowda and his family members.

The State sought dismissal of the petition.

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