Journalism of Courage
After being briefly exempted from a court appearance on health grounds on Saturday,former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa was forced to stand in the box for accused persons in a Lokayukta court on Monday.
After his appearance in the court,Yeddyurappa filed applications for bail in two of the cases registered against him both pertaining to the release of government land to private persons in return for pecuniary gains to members of his family.
With Yeddyurappa were his sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra and son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar,whose companies are accused of receiving kickbacks for favours signed off by Yeddyurappa when he was CM.
The former chief minister answered the court summons and filed for regular bail after the Karnataka High Court on Monday rejected his request for anticipatory bail. Yeddyurappa was forced to appear in court despite being for a few days at a private hospital run by the family of a BJP legislator,Hemachandra Sagar,who too was in court on Monday as one of the recipients of Yeddyurappas alleged largesse.
The former CM had been hoping the grant of anticipatory bail by the high court would rid him of worries of being arrested when he answered the summons of the Lokayukta court.
The high court,while dismissing the bail plea,said there was prima facie evidence of corruption against him and cited the Governors sanction and the cognizance taken by the special court as evidence. The court also suggested that anticipatory bail cannot be granted due to the possibility that the former chief minister might attempt to influence witnesses.
With the high court rejecting anticipatory bail,Yeddyurappas advocates moved a plea for regular bail at the special court. In the special court Yeddyurappas advocates have raised a tactical issue emerging in all the corruption cases against him of whether the former CM s to be prosecuted by the state government or whether it can be done by the private complainants themselves.
The special court adjourned the case till September 7 to hear the bail pleas of Yeddyurappa and others and,most likely,to decide who should prosecute him.
Meanwhile,Yeddyurappa withdrew a petition from the high court challenging the Lokayukta report of July 27,2011 on illegal mining,which indicted him for corruption and forced his resignation as chief minister on July 31.
