Yeddyurappa chose legal help over divine counsel before surrender

The god-fearing former Karnataka chief minister asked his secretary to call his entire legal team and also a few high-ranking police officials for consultation. Vicky Nanjappa reports.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, who was sent to judicial custody on Saturday, is known to be a god-fearing man. Yeddyurappa, who can be safely classified as the most god-fearing chief minister of the country, was always seen at temples each time he faced a crisis in the past.

However, this time around, very surprisingly, the former chief minister relied entirely on legal help. Just before he surrendered, he sat put at his home and did not even think of visiting a temple, as he would have normally done.

The Lokayukta court rejected his bail plea and issued an arrest warrant against him. Yeddyurappa, who was watching the news from his home, decided to stay put in his house. He asked his secretary to call his entire legal team and also a few high-ranking police officials who were close to him when he was chief minister.

While the Lokayukta police went to the court to collect a copy of the warrant, Yeddyurappa was immersed in discussions with his team. According to one of the members of the team, the police officials close to him advised him to go underground and only surface once the bail plea was filed before the high court.

However, members of his legal team were not too keen about the same and felt that it could have a bad effect on the future of the case. Yeddyurappa himself was not too confident about going underground, as he thought that he would be in more trouble if he did so. He even quoted the ongoing yatra being undertaken by Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and said that it could cause some embarrassment to the veteran leader.

In the meantime, he is also said to have called up Advani and consulted him about the same. Advani too is said to have advised him to surrender before the police.

During the course of all these discussions, the Lokayukta police headed by Abdul Ahad had reached his residence. Normally they would barge into the house and carry out the arrest, but they too decided to wait for him to come outside. They did not want to be too harsh with him considering that he was a former chief minister and still a very influential member in the BJP that runs the government in Karnataka.

During this wait another discussion came up and that was whether he should surrender to the police or the court. However, all his advisors suggested that he surrender himself to the court. If he had gone before the police it would have technically still meant an arrest and this would have been very embarrassing for him.

Yeddyurappa looked relaxed when he finally came out in the open. However, within the four walls of his house he was quite a picture. He was extremely nervous and surprisingly the very short-tempered Yeddyurappa was very calm. He made a lot of calls and was frantically seeking advice from each and everyone he called. It is also said that he made a call to the famous Tumkur mutt that has control over most of the Lingayats in Karnataka.

He played out this drama for nearly an hour and once it was decided that he would surrender before the court, he decided to make an exit through the back door of his house.

The Lokayukta police who were waiting for him at the front door took a while to realise that Yeddyurappa had already left and was before the court. They then went before the court and completed the rest of the formalities.

Yeddyurappa, who was taken into judicial custody, however, spent very little time over there. He is said to have vomited following which he was shifted to a hospital. At the Jayadeva hospital he complained of chest pain and was admitted in the ICU.

On Sunday the doctors said that they may need to perform an angiogram on him.

His legal team is all set to file the bail plea before the Karnataka high court on Monday. Although it would be filed without fail, they are attempting to see to it that the matter is taken out of turn. However, it is unlikely that the matter may come up on Monday and there is a possibility that it will be taken up on Tuesday.