UPDATE: Yeddy surrenders, in jail till Oct 22

Facing imminent arrest, former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today surrendered before a Lokayukta court here and was sent to jail for a week after he was issued an arrest warrant in connection with alleged land scams.

On a day of high drama, the 68-year-old BJP leader, who resigned as chief minister on July 31 in the wake of his indictment by the Lokayukta in illegal mining scam, turned up in the court even as a team of police officials went to his house for arresting him.

Yeddyurappa is the first former chief minister of Karnataka to go to jail and the development has come as a major embarassment to BJP whose leader LK Advani is on a countrywide campaign against corruption.

Significantly, Karnataka, where Yeddyurappa had headed the first government of BJP in the South, does not figure in Advani's campaign yatra.

Acting on a complaint by two laweyers against Yeddyurappa for alleged irregularities in denotification of lands during his tenure as chief minister, special Lokayukta judge NK Sudhindra Rao rejected his bail application.

The former chief minister had failed to appear before the court while his sons BY Raghavendra, MP, and BY Vijendra as also his son-in-law Sohan Kumar appeared in the court and got bail.

The judge remanded Yeddyurappa to judicial custody till October 22. His lawyer MB Naik had earlier said that they would challenge the Lokayukta court order in the High Court.

Another accused, former minister SN Krishnaiah Setty, was also remanded to judicial custody till October 22 by the judge who also granted bail BJP MLA Hemachandra Sagar and 10 others in the case.