After former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, now lingayat strongman from Karnataka BS Yeddyurappa is in trouble. A single Bench of the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday allowed a probe by lokayukta against BJP national vice-president BS Yeddyurappa and other including his son BY Raghavendra, daughter BY Arunadevi and former State BJP chief KS Eshwarappa on a petition challenging the lokayukta Court order dismissing complaints against them in a land denotification case in Shimoga district.
Single Bench judge Justice Anand Byrareddy set aside the Shimoga lokayukta Court order which had dismissed complaints against Yeddyurappa and his son and MlA BY Raghavendra accusing them of purchasing land through illegal means, and ordered lokayukta Police to initiate an inquiry into the matter.
The lokayukta Court had dismissed the complaints against Yeddyurappa and others filed by B Vinod, a Shimoga-based advocate, on the grounds that he had not availed himself of sanction from the Governor for prosecution prior to filing the complaint.Advocate Vinod has alleged that Dhavalagiri Properties, owned by family members of Yeddyurappa, had purchased 69 acres near Hunasekatte village in Bhadravati taluk through benamidars.
Challenging the lokayukta Court order, Vinod filed a criminal revision petition in the High Court contending that Yeddyurappa is not in a similar position (Chief Minister) as he was at the time of the alleged commission of offence and hence there is no requirement for him to avail sanction from the Governor for prosecution prior to filing the complaint.
The complainant has also alleged that various provisions of Karnataka land Reforms Act were violated in purchasing the land, and that Yeddyurappa had misused power in getting the land transferred to the name of the firm owned by his family members. 71-year-old BS Yeddyurappa, a mass leader from Karnataka has now to face the lokayukta probe which might hamper his ambition to come back to State politics.
Yeddyurappa an MP elected from Shimoga who broke away from the BJP came back to saffron party to support PM Modi. Yeddyurappa the only face of BJP in the State, who became the first Chief Minister of the BJP in the south, had to resign in the tsunami of illegal mining report submitted by then lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde. However his political gamble paid off as he rejoined BJP under Narendra Modi and went on to become one of the national vice-presidents of the party.