Twin legal set backs for Yediyurappa as HC allows probe into corruption cases

Justice John Michael Cunha on Wednesday partly allowed a petition by Alam Pasha and accordingly set aside the August 26, 2016 order of additional city civil and sessions judge related to three of the four accused, including Yediyurappa, dismissing the complaint filed by her.The case under Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act related to alleged criminal conspiracy and forgery of documents purported to have been issued by Pasha in 2012 when Yediyurappa was the chief minister in his first term.

In a twin blow for Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, the Karnataka High Court has restored a complaint alleging forgery over withdrawal of approval for a parcel of land and refused to quash an FIR filed against him in an 'illegal' land de-notification case of 2015. Justice John Michael Cunha on Wednesday partly allowed a petition by Alam Pasha and accordingly set aside the August 26, 2016 order of additional city civil and sessions judge related to three of the four accused, including Yediyurappa, dismissing the complaint filed by her.

The case under Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act related to alleged criminal conspiracy and forgery of documents purported to have been issued by Pasha in 2012 when Yediyurappa was the chief minister in his first term. Besides Yediyurappa (the then chief minister), former minister for industries Murugesh Nirani, former principal secretary V P Baligar and former managing director of Karnataka Udyog Mitra Shivaswamy K are the other accused.

They have been accused by the petitioner of committing forgery of documents purported to have been issued by her seeking to withdraw the approval granted for allotment of 26 acres of land at Devanahalli Industrial Area in Bengaluru Rural District. The lower court had in 2013 dismissed the complaint on ground that an earlier complaint filed by her had been rejected for want of sanction to prosecute the accused.

The petitioner filed a fresh complaint in 2014 after Yediyurappa demitted office, but it was also dismissed by the lower court on August 26, 2016 on the same ground, but giving liberty to approach the court after getting prior sanction from competent authority. The petitioner submitted that since the respondents were no longer in office, sanction for their prosecution was not necessary.

Concurring with it, Justice Cunha ruled that the quashing of the earlier complaint for want of sanction would not act as a bar to maintain the latest complaint filed in 2014 after the respondents demitted office. The high court upheld the lower court order in respect of Baligar, the third respondent, as the government did not grant sanction to prosecute him.

The court ordered, ''The impugned order is set aside. The complaint in PCR No 32/2014 is directed to be restored to file, insofar as respondent No 1, 2 and 4 are concerned and the same shall be proceeded with in accordance with law.'' Earlier, Justice Cunha, in his order on Tuesday, directed the Lokayukta police to go ahead with its probe against Yediyurappa and others including a former minister in the alleged illegal land de-notification case.

The court also imposed Rs 25,000 cost on Yediyurappa. The case relates to the de-notification of 1.11 acre land at Gangenahalli, which is part of the Matadahalli layout in RT Nagar in the city in which former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and others are also accused.

Based on a complaint by social activist Jayakumar Hiremath, the Lokayukta police had registered a case under section 420 of the IPC (cheating) against the accused in 2015. Earlier on December 23, the court had rejected Yediyurappa's plea to quash criminal proceedings in another land denotification case.

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