Karnataka: Denotification back to haunt BS Yeddyurappa, 4 FIRs filed

BENGALURU: Former chief minister and BJP vice-president B.S. Yeddyurappa is in deep trouble with the Lokayukta police, who had registered three FIRs ag0ainst him for his involvement in denotification of land in Bengaluru on Friday, filing four more FIRs against him related to other cases on Saturday.

In two separate cases, Tumakuru’s former BJP MP G.S. Basavaraju and former BJP MLA from K.R. Puram Nandish Reddy N.S. have also been named as the accused for their alleged involvement in the case. The FIR registered is in connection with the denotification of five acres of land in Banashankari Fifth Stage, when Mr Yeddyurappa was the CM. In this case, the police have named Mr Basavaraju and other officials as accused. The other FIR is registered in connection with denotification of 33 guntas of land in RMV Extension second stage, while another is related to denotification of one acre of land in further extension of Mahalakshmi Layout.

Meanwhile, the FIR was also registered in connection with 15-gunta land denotification in Challakere related to the Arkavathy Layout. In this case, the name of former MLA Nandish Reddy has also surfaced in the accused list. It is expected that the number of FIRs against the former chief minister would go up, as the Lokayukta is going through the entire report related to the scam. The CAG report had mentioned around 40 illegal denotifications by the government and the Lokayukta is set to treat each of them as an independent case.

Meanwhile, it is expected the anti-corruption sleuths would issue notice to Mr Yeddyurappa and other accused in the cases anytime soon, asking them to appear before the investigating authority.

When DC contacted Lokayukta SP Sonia Narang, she said, “During the course of investigation, we will issue notices to all the accused concerned as we have to record their statements as part of the probe.”

A Lokayukta source said that that it was expected that Mr Yeddyurappa and other accused are likely to move the court seeking anticipatory bail. “As there are also chances of their arrests if the investigation demands, we are expecting that they would approach the court to avert arrests,” the source added.

The Lokayukta police, on Friday, had filed three FIRs against Mr Yeddyurappa, based on a complaint filed by one, Jayakumar Hiremath, based on the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report in 2012 - Denotification of land by government and allotment of sites by BDA. The complaint was filed with the Lokayukta by Hiremath in 2014. The case was referred to the CID for a preliminary inquiry. Now, based on the CID report that there were irregularities in denotification of lands, the Lokayukta police have started registering FIRs to initiate a detailed probe into the scam.

The illegal denotifications were said to be done between 2007 and 2012, when H.D. Kumaraswamy and Mr Yeddyurappa were Chief Ministers. On Friday, the FIRs were registered related to denotification of 6.10 acres of land in Kothanur village in JP Nagar 8th phase.

The other FIR was also related to denotification of 6.30 acres of land in the same locality. The third one was regarding denotification of 1.17 acre in Bilekahalli village for formation of BTM Layout fourth stage.

FIR to be filed against HDK soon

Lokayukta sources said they would soon file an FIR against former CM and JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy. “We are going through the files and as and when the cases related to Mr Kumaraswamy comes up, we will file FIR against him as well,” a source said.