Yeddyurappa gets anticipatory bail

The HC granted bail in a graft case related to a tender in the Upper Bhadra irrigation project.

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in a graft case related to a tender in the Upper Bhadra irrigation project during his tenure.

Justice B S Billappa granted bail to Yeddyurappa on furnishing a bond for Rs 1 lakh. He also directed the former CM not to leave the country and cooperate with the investigating agencies. He was also directed to appear before the jurisdictional court within10 days.

Yeddyurappa had sought anticipatory bail following Lokayukta beginning investigation into the complaint filed by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) spokesperson and member of legislative council YSV Datta, alleging that Yeddyurappa and his family members received Rs 13 crore from a private firm, which was awarded the contract work despite being the higher bidder for the tender.

Yeddyurappa feared arrest as a division bench of the high court, comprising Justices K L Manjunath and H S Kempanna, on August 26 rejected his plea to quash the first information report (FIR) filed by the Lokayukta police on August 10 to begin the probe in the case.

The Lokayukta Court last month had issued summons to Yeddyurappa. In his complaint, Datta alleged that the contract work in the project was awarded to RNS Jyothi Infrastructure for Rs 1,033 crore, contrary to the norm of granting the tender to the lowest bidder. Datta alleged that the private firm had, in turn, rewarded Yeddyurappa and his family members by transferring Rs 13 crore to Dhavalgari Developers Ltd, owned by his sons B Y Vijayendra and B Y Raghavendra, who is a member of Lok Sabha from Shimoga and his son-in-law R Sohan Kumar.

Lower court Judge N K Sudhindra Rao, who also functions as special Lokayukta court for speedy trial of graft cases, directed the Lokayutka police to investigate the case.

Earlier, Ravi B Naik, counsel for Yeddyurppa submitted that there were no irregularities in awarding the contract to the company and presented copies of all the documents related to the matter.

Yeddyurappa resigned as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first chief minister in south India on July 31 after he was indicted by former state ombudsman Justice N Santosh Hedge on July 27 in the multicrore mining scam in the state.