Fresh probe against Karnataka CM in denotification case

BENGALURU: The special court for elected representatives on Saturday directed Lokayukta police to conduct a fresh investigation with regard to a land denotification complaint lodged against chief minister BS Yediyurappa in 2013.
The complaint was filed by Vasudeva Reddy, a resident of Bengaluru.
He claimed that certain pieces of land acquired for the IT corridor between Whitefield and Electronics City were denotified for illegal gain under a government notification dated June 21, 2006 by Yediyurappa (arraigned as accused no. 2) when he was deputy chief minister and they were allotted to entrepreneurs.
The investigating officer filed a ‘B’ final report stating that no offences appear to have been committed by accused no. 2 under Section 13 (1) (d) read with Section 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
Court seeks final report from DySP
However, special judge Shridhar Gopalakrishna Bhat noted that the final report submitted by the investigating officer doesn’t instil confidence in the court and directed the deputy SP attached to Lokayukta police to investigate the matter and submit the final report/additional final report expeditiously as per law and posted the matter to August 21.
The investigating officer has also been told to keep in mind observations made by the high court in its December 22, 2020 order vis-a- vis delay in investigation, when the petition filed by the chief minister came to be dismissed.
In 2019, Yediyurappa had moved the high court challenging the special court’s order directing Lokayukta police to probe the matter. He contented that on October 9, 2015, the HC had quashed proceedings against RV Deshpande, who had been arraigned as accused no.1 in the case and it had been upheld by the Supreme Court too.
However, the high court rejected the plea and pointed out that allegations against them are ‘different and distinct’ and there was no relief granted in his favour.
The high court had further noted there was a deliberate and intentional delay on the part of the investigating agency as it did not conclude the investigation from February 18, 2015 when the complaint was referred to investigation till April 2, 2019 ,when the high court actually stayed the probe., “Being an independent and impartial body entrusted with the duty to investigate into the misconduct of the public servants objectively, (Lokayukta police) cannot give rise to an impression in the mind of the general public that it is playing into the hands of the political bigwigs,” the high court had observed while issuing direction to the special court for monitoring the investigation in such cases.