30 March,2011 06:22 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Court grants interim stay on investigations into one among the five cases against them
In a major relief to Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the High Court granted interim stay on investigations into one among the five cases against him and his kin. Yeddyurappa's son-in-law, Sohan Kumar, who has been accused in the case, approached the High court seeking relief. Taking cognizance of the petition, Single Bench Judge K N Keshava Narayan gave an interim stay and summoned the complainant to appear before the court.
Chak De! Former Prime Minister and JD(S) Chief H D Deve Gowda
attended an all community prayer meet that was organised in the city to
pray for Team India that faces arch-rival Pakistan in the World Cup
semi-finals today. Pic/Ramesh HS
The stay would be effective only on the Rachenahalli land encroachment issue, which Lokayukta was about to investigate. However, with the interim stay effective, the Lokayukta cannot probe the matter till the High Court gives clearance after being convinced by the deposition of the respondentu00a0-- Sirajin Basha.
Common accused
Yeddyurappa is the common accused in all five cases with 15 allegations of land encroachment, corruption and misuse of official powers. The other accused include his sons B Y Vijayendra, B Y Raghavendra, son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar, and companies that benefited in the land scam deals. Including Saturday's case, a total of five complainants with 15 allegations have been submitted before the court as of now.
The complaints allege that the CM and others have gained monetarily, in excess of Rs 189.71 crore, causing a loss of about Rs 465 crore to the exchequer. The complaints filed by Advocate Sirajin Basha relate to the alleged illegal transfer of land, abuse of power, criminal conspiracy, cheating and securing of illegal gain for the kith and kin of the Chief Minister and those associated with him.
The drama
It may be recalled that the Lokayukta court (23rd Additional City Civil and Session Court) admitting the case, directed Lokayukta sleuths to investigate and file a report within six weeks. High drama ensued when Additional Director General of Police R K Dutta initially said that he would treat this as any other case and go ahead with filing FIR against the accused.
Lokayukta Justice, Santosh Hedge announced the next day that the issue on whether the FIR should or should not be filed has been referred to the legal cell for opinion. The cell gave its opinion three days later stating that FIR should not be filed since the matter was referred by the Magistrate under section 202 of the criminal procedure code.
