Yediyurappa appears before court in land denotification case, seeks bail

PTI, Jun 17, 2022, 3:31 PM IST

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday appeared before the Special Court dealing exclusively with criminal cases related to Legislators, in connection with a land denotification case.

Arriving with senior advocate C V Nagesh, the Karnataka BJP strongman applied for bail following which the Sessions judge B Jayantha Kumar sought the complainant’s advocate to respond to this plea.

The complainant’s advocate K V Dhananjay said that a response would be filed after going through the bail plea. ”If there are causes for opposing bail, objections will be filed,” he said, as he sought time for the same.

The case was then adjourned to Saturday.

The special court had summoned the 79-year-old leader in a private complaint filed by Vasudeva Reddy in 2013.

The Lokayukta police had filed a B Report in the case citing a lack of evidence; however, the special court had rejected the report.

The complaint alleges that Yediyurappa as Deputy Chief Minister in 2006 illegally denotified 15 acres and 30 guntas lands in Bengaluru’s Bellandur and Devarabeesanahalli that were acquired for an IT Park.

The court had exempted Yediyurappa’s appearance on May 25 and adjourned the case to June 17 after the former CM’s advocate had submitted that he was suffering from bi-lateral pneumonitis, diabetes, and hypertension, and was on bed rest for 10 days as per the doctor’s advice.

The case against the main accused in the original complaint — the then Industries Minister R V Deshpande — was quashed by the High Court in 2015. Yediyurappa is the only accused in this case now facing charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Karnataka Government under the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Act acquired 434 acres of land in Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, Kariyammana Agrahara, and Amanibellandur Khane villages for an Information Technology Park. It is alleged that some of it were denotified by Yediyurappa in favor of private persons.