Karnataka Lokayukta corruption case: Agitating AAP members taken into custody
Bengaluru: Over 100 members of Aam Admi Party (AAP) on Saturday staged a protest before the Gandhi statue at the Anand Rao circle demanding resignation of the Lokayukta Justice Y. Bhaskar Rao.
The protesters were also supported by the veteran freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and renowned writer and activist B.T. Lalitha Nayak. She exhorted the volunteers to agitate until its logical conclusion. The protesters later marched towards the official residence of Lokayukta and to picket his residence. However, they were detained by the police on the way and taken into preventive custody. The protesters were taken to Mysore Road CAR grounds and later released.
“The Lokayukta should either resign or go on leave because with this incident the credibility of judiciary has gone down and it would be shameless on the part of Lokayukta if he still sticks on to the office, while an investigation against his son will be carried out by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). We see no iota of self respect in this man,” said Ravi Krishna Reddy, AAP member to Deccan Chronicle.
BSY, HDK facing cases lodged by Ayukta
The expose on the alleged corruption scam in the Lokayukta comes close on the heels of the 16 FIRs, which have been registered by the Lokayukta police against former chief ministers B.S. Yeddyurappa (15) of the BJP and H.D. Kumaraswamy (1) of the JD (S) in the Bangalore Development Authority land denotification scam between 2007 and 2012.
The FIRs were registered last month under the direction of the Lokayukta Justice Bhaskar Rao, which was based on a report of the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) on denotification of land between 2007 and '12 and the subsequent inquiry by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Yeddyurappa has appealed before the High Court for quashing of the FIRs.
The CAG report (3) of 2012 had rapped the Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy governments for "rampant" illegal denotification of land benefiting builders and companies during the 2007-11 period. Mr Kumaraswamy was the chief minister from February 4, 2006 to October 9, 2007 in the JD(S)-BJP coalition government and Mr Yeddyurappa, launched the first-ever BJP government in South and was the CM from May 30, 2008 to July 31, 2011.
