Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has dismissed Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s plea seeking quashing of criminal proceedings against him in a 2013 corruption case.
The case relates to Yediyurappa’s alleged involvement in illegally denotifying several acres of land for a residential project, which was originally earmarked for an IT project in the Varthur-Whitefield area of Bengaluru.
The decision was taken by Yediyurappa when he was serving as Karnataka’s deputy chief minister in the then BJP-JDS coalition government of 2006-07. The case against him was registered in 2013.
Sources in Yediyurappa’s office said he is likely to move the Supreme Court in January against the Karnataka HC’s Tuesday decision.
Court questions laxity in probe
Hearing the 2013 case Tuesday, a single-judge bench of Justice John Michael Cunha also pulled up the Lokayukta police for laxity in the probe that has been going on for more than five years now.
Justice Cunha said the explanation given by the Lokayukta police for the delay was “unacceptable”.
He also directed the Lokayukta court to keep a close watch on probes ordered by the criminal courts in respect to misconduct of public servants, MPs and MLAs involved in the commission of criminal offences.
“I find that distinct and separate allegations are made against the petitioner (accused No.2) which read as under: The then Deputy Chief Minister Mr B S Yediyurappa also recklessly denotified land, disregarding the fact that the possession was taken and land was allotted to entrepreneurs,” Justice Cunha said in his order.
The order also stressed on the fact that the allegation against Yediyurappa still needs to be investigated.
“A reading of the complaint clearly indicates that the petitioner is sought to be prosecuted for the independent act of denotification of the land done by him during his tenure as the deputy chief minister,” the order further stated.
“Though, at this juncture, it cannot be said that Lokayukta police succumbed to pressure from Yediyurappa, who has been holding the position of chief minister, yet, being an independent and impartial body entrusted with the duty to investigate into the misconduct of public servants objectively, they cannot give rise to an impression in the minds of the general public that it is playing into the hands of the political bigwigs,” Justice Cunha said.
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CM illegally denotified land meant for IT parks: Petitioner
The case against Yediyurappa was initiated after a private complaint was filed in 2013 by Vasudev Reddy, a resident of Bengaluru’s Bellandur.
In his complaint with the Lokayukta Special Court, Reddy alleged that Yediyurappa had ordered denotification of 4 acres and 30 guntas of land in Devarabisanahalli and Bellandur. Reddy claimed that the land, which was to be allocated for an information technology park, was allegedly de-notified by Yediyurappa to build high-end residential complexes.
According to Reddy, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) had proposed that around 500 acres of land around the Bellandur-Varthur be notified, but only 434 acres were finally notified.
Yediyurappa’s counsel approached the high court on the plea that since the court had on 9 October 2015 quashed proceedings against another accused, former Congress industries minister R.V. Deshpande, a similar order should be issued for the chief minister too. The CM’s lawyers also argued that a probe against him on the basis of the same FIR amounted to abuse of the law.
The judge, however, turned down the contention. He also did not accept the argument that a sanction to prosecute Yediyurappa could not be obtained, saying the argument did not hold as he (Yediyurappa) was out of public position when the FIR was lodged against him.
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