Special court rejects Lokayukta police plea to close probe against Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: In a setback to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, a special court for public representatives on Saturday dismissed the 'B-Report' by the Lokayukta police seeking the closure of investigation against him in a 15-year-old case relating to denotification of prime land in Bengaluru. The court also directed the Lokayukta police to expedite the investigation and furnish the final or additional final report.

Judge Sridhar Gopalakrishna Bhat said in his order, "The B Report submitted by the investigation officer under section 173(2) of CrPC is hereby rejected." "Consequently, acting under section 156(3) of CrPC, the Deputy Superintendent of Police attached to the police wing of Karnataka Lokayuktha, Bengaluru is hereby directed to investigate the matter further in the light of the observation made in this order and to file final report/additional final report expeditiously as per law." The court also reminded the investigation officer to keep in mind the observations made by the Karnataka High Court with regard to delay in conducting investigation.

The case pertains to the denotification of prime land in Bellandur and Devarabeesanahalli, which was related to Varthur-Whitefield IT Corridor.The land was acquired in 2000-2001 for an IT park. However, in 2006-07, as the Deputy Chief Minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy, Yediyurappa denotified the land according to the private complaint lodged by Vasudeva Reddy with the Lokayukta court alleging irregularities in the denotification.

The court directed the Lokayukta police to register a case, based on which a case was registered on February 21, 2015 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. In December 2020, Yediyurappa had filed a petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the case. Yediyurappa had contended that the High Court had quashed the same FIR against the then Industries minister and Congress leader R V Deshpande on October 9, 2015. Hence, the investigation against him based on the same FIR was illegal but the court rejected his argument. Dismissing the petition, Justice John Michael Cunha directed the police to intensify the investigation. The Lokayukta police had filed a 'B Report' seeking closure of the investigation which Reddy had challenged.