MP lobbies for arms firm he cleared when he was HC judge

Curiously, the MP who is now lobbying for the firm, in his earlier avatar as a high court judge, had acquitted G Lakshman, its proprietor, of charges registered against him by the CBI for violating licensing conditions, illegally manufacturing arms and possessing secret official documents of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Hanumanthappa, who retired as the chief justice of the Orissa High Court, as a judge of the Karnataka High Court wrote a 97-page judgment in 1993 exonerating Lakshman and six other accused.

Hanumanthappa confirmed to The Indian Express that he had written the letter but he could not recall its exact contents.

The arms manufacturer lives in a town neighbouring his Chitradurga parliamentary constituency.

Reminded of his judgment in favour of the same company in 1993, Hanumanthappa said: “I now follow who is behind this. It is one Sudhir Kumar. This man is a sadist. I have myself rendered thousands and thousands of these cases. At this juncture, how can I remember when and what I have said?’’

Sudhir Kumar, the then district magistrate of Bellary, who filed the initial inquiry report against Lakshman, had to wait till 2006 to clear himself of a criminal defamation case slapped against him by the businessman. The senior IAS officer had to make 50-odd appearances in court as an accused.

In his letter to the Home Secretary this May, Hanumanthappa pleaded that since the condition of exporting 40 per cent of the licenced quota is not imposed on other manufacturers of arms, the firm is being discriminated against. “Imposition of such conditions in any Acts and Rules, inconsistent with the provisions of law, do not stand the law,’’ he wrote.