BSY faces arrest as bail plea rejected

The chances of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to escape arrest have dimmed as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court here on Wednesday rejected his anticipatory bail plea in the mining bribery case.

The trial court judge D R Venkat Sudarshan also rejected anticipatory bail pleas of Yeddyurappa’s two sons, B Y Raghavendra, member of Lok Sabha from Shimoga and B Y Vijayendra and son-in-law R Sohan Kumar.

With the rejection of the bail plea, the CBI can arrest Yeddyurappa and kin any time. However, Yeddyurappa’s lawyers said they would move the High Court for bail.

On the directive of the Supreme Court, the CBI is probing mining bribery case against former chief minister.

CBI judge D R Venkata Sudarshan dismissed the petitions of Yeddyurappa, his sons B Y Raghavendra, a Lok Sabha member, and B Y Vijendra and son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar, stating that granting bail would come in the way of the investigation by CBI which is probing the case on a Supreme Court directive.

In a 75-page order, the court said it was “taking into consideration the magnitude of the case” and “ensuring free and fair investigation” for rejecting the bail. It also said CBI’s argument that Yeddyurappa as a former Chief Minister and Raghavendra, as a sitting MP were “influential persons” could not be set aside.

However, “mere rejection of anticipatory bail applications cannot be a ground for arrest”, the court said. In his arguments, CBI counsel Ashok Bhan had earlier submitted Rs 20 crore was transferred by Jindal Steel Works (JSW) to Prerana Educational and Social Trust, run by Yeddyurappa’s sons, and subsequently by Prerana to Vivekananda Trust, of which Yeddyurappa is a trustee.

Yeddyurappa and his kin are accused of taking kickbacks from mining companies in return for some favours. Yeddyurappa, BJP’s first chief minister in Karnataka and South India, was forced to quit on July 31, 2011, over the same issue after the then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde indicted him in the final investigation report on illegal mining in Karnataka.

According to CBI, the donations were a “quid pro quo for Jindal”. Yeddyurappa had moved the court after CBI registered an FIR and raided his and his family’s residential and other premises as part of the probe ordered by the Supreme Court on the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee set up by it to look into illegal mining.

The BJP strongman in the state, who quit as chief minister after the Lokayukta report’s indictment over illegal mining in July last year, has been entangled in a series of corruption cases pertaining mostly to alleged irregularities in denotification of land during his tenure.