Ex-CM's judicial custody extended till Nov 3

The Lokayukta Court on Saturday extended till November 3 the judicial custody of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. The court order came in the absence of Yeddyurappa, who did not turn up at the court due to ill health.

He has been under judicial custody since October 15 after the court rejected his bail plea in two alleged cases of illegal denotfication of land in and around Bangalore in return for monetary gains.

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao also extended the judicial custody of former minister and sitting MLA Krishnaiah Settty, who is also accused in the case relating to alleged irregularities in denotification of government lands.

However, other accused in the case like two sons of Yeddyurappa, B Y Raghavendra, a Lok Sabha member and B Y Vijayendra, are out on conditional bail.

At the hearing on Sunday, jail authorities said that Yeddyurappa was not being produced in the court due to his ill health. The Lokayukta Court had issued summons to the accused in August on two of the five private complaints filed by advocate Sirajin Basha, regarding illegal denotification of government land for pecuniary gain.

Yeddyurappa is the first accused in all the five cases of illegal land denotification for monetary gains. The cases were filed after state governor H R Bhardwaj sanctioned criminal proceedings in January this year against Yeddyurappa and his kin for conspiring to denotify lands in and around Bangalore for pecuniary gains.

Yeddyurappa resigned as chief minister on July 31 after then Lokayukta (ombudsman) Justice (retd) N Santosh Hegde recommended his trial for graft in the multi-crore iron ore mining scam.