Bangalore: Yeddy, Sons Appear Before Lokayukta Court, Case Posted to Apr 12

From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore

Bangalore, Mar 16: On a day when former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa broke his silence on who will present Karnataka’s annual budget on March 21 and clarified that the present Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda would come out with his maiden budget for the year 2012-13, Yeddyurappa and his sons – B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra – as well as son-in-law Sohan Kumar along with three other accused appeared before Lokayukta Court in the case on the alleged illegal land denotification case.

The Lokayukta judge N K Sudhindra Rao, which heard the case on the fourth private complaint lodged by advocate Sirajin Basha, posted the further hearing to April 12.

Yeddyurappa and all the other accused, who have already been granted anticipatory bail by the Karnataka High Court in the case, appeared in the court in response to summons issued by it on February 23.

The case pertains to alleged illegal denotifcation of government land in Hebbal, Sreerampura and allotment of site in RMC II stage.

This is the third private complaint out of the five in which Yeddyurappa has been issued summons.

The former Chief Minister was sent to judicial custody when he appeared before the court in two corruption cases in October last year. He was subsequently released on bail.

Talking to reporters at a separate occasion, Yeddyurappa sought to scotch speculation that he was likely to present the State’s annual budget for the year 2012-13 by pointing out that his successor D V Sadananda Gowda happens to be both the Chief Minister and finance minister and would be presenting the annual budget.

Yeddyurappa also clarified that he did not wish to participate in  the election campaigning for the party candidate Sunil Kumar in the crucial Udupi-Chikmagalur parliamentary by-election on March 18. ''The Chief Minister has been campaigning. He had also said that there were still cases pending against him (Yeddyurpapa) and therefore, I did not want to embarrass him by electioneering at the same time,” he said.

Meanwhile, D V Sadananda Gowda, who has been intensively campaigning in the entire constituency during the last few days, is expected to return to the city on Saturday morning with the end of electioneering on Friday.

Incidentally, the former Chief Minister is yet to come out of the Damocles sword hanging over his head over the illegal mining issue as the Supreme Court is yet to take a decision on the Central Empowered Committee’s report and whether the case needs to be referred to the CBI for further investigation.

The Justice Shah Commission, appointed to probe into cases of illegal mining, specially of iron ore, has already submitted its report to the Union Mines Ministry.

But the Union Government was yet to study the report and take a decision on the recommendations. The one-man commission headed by Justice Shah was constituted last year to probe cases of illegal mining, especially of iron ore.

The committee in its report on Karnataka has already pointed out a nexus between mafia and traders and politicians.