By IANS,
Bangalore : Scam-hit former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Monday suffered a double whammy in graft cases. A court summoned him to appear before it Aug 27 in one case and ordered police to probe another corruption charge.
Additional City Civil and Sessions Court Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao directed Yeddyurappa and 14 others to present themselves before him to answer charges of illegal land dealings.
He also ordered police attached to the Lokayukta (ombudsman) to probe a complaint of graft against Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) spokesperson and legislator Y.S.V. Datta.
The summons were issued on a private complaint by two Bangalore advocates accusing Yeddyurappa, his two sons, son-in-law and several others of financially benefiting from illegal denotification (freeing from government control) of lands around Bangalore.
Advocates Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj alleged in their complaint that Yeddyurappa flouted rules and denotified 2.5 acres of land in Arakere village and 1.7 acres in Devarachikkanahalli, both in south Bangalore, and 1.21 acres in Gedalahalli village in east Bangalore.
The advocates filed the complaint in January after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj gave them sanction to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa and others.
The Karnataka High Court recently dismissed a petition by R. Sohan Kumar, son-in-law of Yeddyurappa, related to the two advocates’s complaint.
Yeddyurappa quit July 31 as chief minister after Lokayukta (ombudsman) indicted him in the illegal mining scam.
In his complaint, Datta alleged that Dhavalagiri Properties, a firm owned by Yeddyurappa’s sons, B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra, and son-in-law received a kickback of Rs.30 crore from a company which was given work contract in an irrigation project.
Datta claimed that the company’s charges for the work were much higher than its competitors but still it was favoured as it had given Rs.30 crore to Dhavalagiri Properties.
The elder son of Yeddyurappa, Raghavendra, is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Shimoga, about 280 km from Bangalore.