Renukacharya claims nurse Jayalakshmi has `withdrawn’ criminal case
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Apr 12: Karnataka’s Excise Minister M P Renukacharya, a staunch loyalist of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa turned dissident and was finally rewarded with a cabinet ministerial berth, can finally forget the legal hassles and negative publicity that he had to endure for three long years following a criminal case lodged against him by nurse Jayalakshmi three years back as according to him the woman who tormented him has withdrawn the case on her own.

It may be recalled that Jayalakshmi, who was 36 when the incident hogged media headlines, was serving as a staff nurse at the government-run Victoria Hospital in Bangalore. She had allegedly befriended Renukacharya's wife Suma at a yoga centre in Bangalore in 2000 and subsequently came into contact with the MLA. Subsequently, Renukacharya started frequenting Jayalakshmi's house in BCC Layout in Chandra Layout police station limits.

Jayalakshmi was later appointed as the secretary of a charitable and
education trust that runs a nursing college on Bannerghatta Road. The MLA continued with his demands, including having him appointed as one of the trustees, which was not accepted by the other trustees causing the tiff between the two.

Renukacharya, a two-term MLA from Honnali in Davangere district, was serving as as the chairman of the Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Ltd, when the Chandra Layout police in Bangalore had registered a criminal case against him on April 20, 2007 based on Jayalakshmi’s complaint following her attempted suicide over alleged harassment by the BJP MLA.

He was forced to resign his post as KEONICS chief and had claimed at the time that he had decided to quit to facilitate an impartial inquiry into the episode and said that the charges levelled against him were false. ``The episode is politically motivated. This is a conspiracy hatched by the local (Honnali) Congress leaders to tarnish my image," he had alleged.

The minister, who addressed the media on Monday, claimed that, ``Today, Jayalakshmi
has withdrawn the case on her own and reached a compromise.” The nurse had consumed poison inside her car that was found parked on Railway Parallel Road in Seshadripuram and was hospitalized.

Contending that some of his political opponents were behind the entire episode and had instigated it to tarnish his image in a bid to finish him politically, Renukacharya said: ``Nobody can finish me politically. I won the elections twice from Honnali constituency due to the love and faith shown by voters. I am happy now.”

Renukacharya declined to divulge details of the compromise but indicated that a 
``seer and some elders might have advised the nurse to withdraw the case.’’ The police had booked a case under several sections of the Indian Penal Code - Sections 387 (extortion), 504 (breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insulting the modesty of woman).

Reiterating his contention that the entire episode was a political conspiracy against him, he said the nurse had registered the case against him by leveling baseless charges. Further, leaders of all political parties sought his resignation after he was sworn in as the minister in the Yeddyurappa
Cabinet.

"I won the elections twice from Honnali constituency due to the love and faith shown by voters. Nobody can finish me politically,” he asserted. He had even offered to undergo narco-analysis test so that the truth can come out.

Responding to questions from the reporters, Renukacharaya claimed that there was no reason for it. ``She spoke to me in the court and told me about the withdrawal of the case. This is the end of the chapter.”

It may be recalled that Jayalakshmi alleged that Renukacharya had pointed a revolver at her, threatened to pour acid on her and outrage her reputation by circulating obscene photographs. The nurse had lodged a complaint that the BJP MLA was harassing her to marry him.

Even after Renukacharya was inducted in the Yeddyurappa cabinet, she had publicly demanded his resignation or removal following the criminal case against him.