Bengaluru: An FIR has been registered against Ashwin Rao, son of Karnataka Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao, by Lokayukta police on Wednesday. He has been booked under Prevention of Corruption Act and other sections of IPC for allegedly demanding bribe from an executive engineer with PWD, on May 4.

The FIR was filed minutes before Karnataka high court stayed investigation by Lokayukta police into corruption charges against Ashwin. On Wednesday morning, a division bench comprising Justices N Kumar and Sreenivase Gowda directed both Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta not to direct any in-house investigation and await the report of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) appointed by the state government. The high court gave the interim order based on the petition filed by Ashwin.

Earlier, the lawyers were protesting at the Lokayukta office demanding Rao’s resignation. That’s when MN Krishnamurthy, executive engineer with PWD, who accused one Krishna Rao of demanding a bribe of Rs 1 crore at the Lokayukta office, gave a written statement to the Lokayukta police.

In his statement, he identified Ashwin Rao as Krishna Rao, who he met on May 4 and demanded bribe. Based on this statement, a FIR under section 8 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (fraud), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.

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