Bengaluru: In a huge boost for former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was sent to jail in the Rachenahalli land denotification case in 2011, the CBI Special Court on Tuesday acquitted him and his sons in the case. Mr Yeddyurappa was forced to resign from the CM post after charges were levelled against him and had to make way for D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
With this verdict, the BJP state president is free from major denotification charges, although cases filed against him, based on the CAG report, are still pending in the SC.
In fact five cases pertaining to denotification were filed against Yeddyurappa and the CBI court had earlier quashed four of them. The trial in one case was stayed by the Supreme Court which had sent the case to the special court directing it to dispose off the case. The special court quashed the remaining case on Tuesday citing technical grounds. City-based advocates, Sirajin Basha and Balaraj had filed the case against Mr Yeddyurappa and his sons after obtaining sanction from then governor, H.R. Bhardwaj. The petitioners had alleged illegal denotification of one acre 12 guntas land in survey no. 55/2 in Rachenahalli, KR Puram in Bengaluru, which was acquired by BDA for formation of Arkavathi layaout. The denotification caused a loss to the state exchequer to the tune of Rs. 19.60 crore, they alleged.
The petitioners had also cited the denotification of 16 guntas land in survey number 56 in Rachenahalli and claimed the land was sold to Dhavalagiri Properties. causing a revenue loss of Rs 8 crore to the state exchequer. The other accusued in the five denotification cases were former minister Krishnaiah Setty, Yeddyurappa’s sons B.Y. Vijayendra and B.Y. Raghavendra and son-in-law, Sohan Kumar.
Meanwhile, reacting to the verdict, Mr Yeddyurappa expressed happiness over the quashing of the remaining denotification case in the CBI Special Court and said he had faith in the judiciary as well as God. “I am happy about the closure of the cases against me. Unnecessarily, cases were filed against me, now the special court has acquitted me in all cases pertaining to denotification”, the veteran leader told reporters.
