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Court summons to Yeddy, kin in land denotification case

September 04, 2012 20:04 IST

In fresh trouble for former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the Lokayukta court on Tuesday ordered issue of summons to him, his son B Y Raghavendra, MP, and five other 'benamidars' in a case over alleged denotification of land in Bhadravathi in Shimoga district.

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao further directed all the seven accused to appear before him on September 25.

The five benamidars are -- B K Somashekhar, his wife B S Uma Devi, sister B K Radhamani, his mother Adi Lakshmamamma and one H V Manjunath, who was asked to execute the sale deed in favour of Dhavalagiri Properties, owned by Yeddyurappa's family members.

While pronouncing the order, the court made its observation on the report of Deputy Commissioner Shinmoga Vedamurthy who stated that no irregularisation had taken place (which was incorrect), and sought to bring it to the notice of the chief secretary.

Complainant Vinod alleged that Yeddyurappa had abused his office and denotified 69 acres of land at Bhadravathi in 2010.

He charged the former chief minister with having used the benamidars to get the lands transferred in the name of Dhavalagiri Properties, two months after denotifying them.

Vinod also alleged that more than 250 acres of forest land at the Reserve Forest in Bhadravathi was denotified between 2010-2011 and that Yeddyurappa had amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The Lokayukta court also ordered issue of summons to Yeddyurappa, his two B Y Raghavendra, B Y Vijayendra and son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar in another case involving alleged irregularities in awarding Upper Bhadra irrigation project to a private firm and directed them to appear before it on September 25.

On May 26, the Lokayukta court had rejected the "B" report (giving a clean chit) filed by Lokayukta police and ordered further probe against Yeddyurappa and others for alleged irregularities in awarding the project contract to a private firm for pecuniary gains.

Lokayukta court judge N K Sudhindra Rao had directed Lokayukta police to conduct further probe into the charges against Yeddyurappa, Dhavalagiri Properties,Sayadri Healthcare and Murdeshwar Enterprises and submit its report.

On January 30, Lokayukta police which investigated the charges levelled by JDS leader Y S V Datta submitted its "B" report, stating it found no evidence against Yeddyurappa and his family members.

Investigating Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police Girish S in his report stated "there was no illegal favour found in allotment of tender to R N S Infrastructure Limited".

Datta in his complaint had alleged that Yeddyurappa received a Rs 16 crore kickback for awarding the second stage Upper Bhadra Irrigation project to joint venture company of RNS Infrastructure Limited and Jyothi Limited, though the firm was the highest bidder, ignoring claims of the lowest bidders.

In return, Murudeshwara Power Corporation (sister concern of RNS Jyothi) paid Rs six crore to Sahayadri Care and Diagnostics Limited and Rs 10 crore to Davalagiri Properties.

After payment of Rs 10 crore, MPCL entered into an MoU with Davalagiri to get 40 per cent of developed land out of the 79 acres purchased by Davalagiri for real estate purposes, the complainant had alleged.

Dhavalagiri Properties and Sahyadri Healthcare is owned and managed by Yeddyurappa's sons and son-in-law.

Yeddyurappa, however, was granted anticipatory bail by the high court in the Upper Bhadra case.

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