Complaint against Yeddyurappa, others adjourned to Sep 17

The Lokayukta Court on Tuesday adjourned to September 17 hearing of the bail applications by B S Yeddyurappa and 14 others in connection with a private complaint alleging irregularities in denotification of government land by him.

Lokayukta special court judge N K Sudhindra Rao adjourned hearing on the applications on the complaint by advocate Sirajin Basha in which they have been accused of causing an estimated Rs 124 crore loss to the state exchequer.

Senior counsel for the complainant C H Hanumantharaya filed his objections to the first complaint and sought time till September 17 to file objections to the second one, involving Yeddyurappa and nine others, where they have been accused of causing an estimated loss of Rs 175 crore to the exchequer.

The court then took on record objections to bail applications filed by complainant's counsel in the first complaint and adjourned the hearing on it to September 17. All the accused in the two complaints had filed their bail applications before the court on August 29.

Earlier, the court allowed the application of Yeddyurappa, the first accused and his son B Y Raghavendra, member of Parliament, the third accused in the second complaint, seeking exemption from personal appearance.

Yeddyurappa, who failed to appear in court on Tuesday, moved an application seeking exemption from personal appearance stating he was required to attend a Bharatiya Janata Party high command meeting campaign for the Septmber 26 by-poll in Koppal constituency, among others.

The court made it clear while it was considering his exemption this time, he has to be present at the next hearing.

The court sought to know from Special Public Prosecutor Lokayukta Pramod Chandra if he was representing the case as earlier Hanumantharaya had filed a power of attorney in the last hearing stating he wished to be prosecutor, which was objected to by senior counsel for the accused Ravi B Naik, who said there was no need for him to assume the role as Chandra was there.

To this, Chandra filed a memo submitting that since proceedings are arising out of a private complaint, Lokayukta police is not interested in prosecuting. He further submitted that his role was limited to the cases referred to the Lokayukta. He filed a similar memo in the other complaint.

Both memos signed by Superintendent of police, Lokayukta, Rangaswamy Naik who was present were taken on record by the court. The SPP also filed objections to the bail applications by Yeddyurappa and others in both complaints seeking dismissal of the applications.

Naik then sought six weeks for Lokayukta police to complete its probe and submit its report in the first of Basha's five complaints, alleging denotification of government land in Rachenahalli village in Bangalore East taluk and amalgamation of a public road in  Nagavara Layout, which was referred to Lokayukta police for investigation by earlier

Lokayukta Judge Justice C B Hipparagi in March, 2011.

The court adjourned hearing in this complaint to September 30.