Special court orders to file criminal charge on ex-K'tka CM Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: BJP leader and former Chief Minister of Karnataka BS Yediyurappa will face a criminal charge related to a corruption case with a special court in Bengaluru that looks into criminal cases against elected representatives found prima facie case against him.

The court also ordered to file a corruption case against Yediyurappa in connection with a denotification case pertaining to the 2006-07 period when he was the deputy chief minister.

"Register a Special Criminal Case against the accused No 2 Sri B.S. Yediyurappa for offences punishable under Sec. 13(1)(d) r/w Sec. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988," The Indian Expressed reported, quoting a special court order.

The special court direction came in response to a private complaint filed by a landowner, Vasudev Reddy. The case earlier was investigated by the Karnataka Lokayukta.

Ordering to register a Special Criminal Case against Yediyurappa, the special court judge said that there is no evidence to believe the complainant had filed a false complaint.

Earlier, the Karnataka Lokayukta police had filed a closure report in the matter on the grounds that there was no payment of illegal gratification to Yediyurappa for denotification of land and that there was no material or evidence to file a charge sheet against the former chief minister.

However, the special court that found the police report inconclusive for not properly applying provisions of law to make while making the claim of lack of evidence of illegal gratification and rejected the report in 2021.

Yediyurappa has been accused of illegally de-notifying nearly 434 acres of land that had been acquired by the state for an Information Technology corridor when a BJP-JDS coalition was in power in 2006-07. The acquired land was allegedly illegally denotified and handed over to other private parties, causing a loss to the state and the original landowners.