BENGALURU: Eight months after the CBI Special Court in the city acquitted BJP state president and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on charges of receiving `40 crore kickbacks from mining companies, the CBI inaction to go for an appeal against the court order has raised questions in the political circuit.
According to CBI sources, the legal wing of the investigative agency had advised for filing an appeal against the court order within days after the verdict. CBI’s disinterest so far to act on the advice has made Yeddyurappa’s rivals question the credibility of CBI as they see it as a deliberate ploy to bail out Yeddyurappa under the BJP dispensation at the Centre.
Sources in the CBI said that legal experts of the central investigating agency have advised to prefer an appeal before Karnataka High Court, against CBI Special Court judgement dated October 26, 2016. Normally, the appeal has to be filed within 90 days. But almost 240 days have gone by. But there are no signs of filing an appeal. “We don’t know whether CBI is deliberately sitting on the legal advice or not,” an official said.
A former CBI counsel, however, said that the CBI can file an appeal even after 90 days, by condoning the delay.
The Opposition parties have taken a dig at the CBI, accusing it of being a puppet in the hands of the Union government.
Congress leader V S Ugrappa said it’s nothing but favouritism and it shows that the investigating agency is not free under the Union government, he said.
He added that the special public prosecutor stated that all the cases he represented had ended in conviction.
But it was different in Yeddyurappa’s case. Therefore, if special public prosecutor advised to file an appeal, the CBI should have done it. Therefore, it is true that the CBI is an agent of the Union government which is misusing the central investigating agency to save its own partymen.JD(S) too smells foul play in not preferring an appeal by CBI.
JD(S) spokesperson Ramesh Babu said it is quite natural to say that CBI is being misused by the Union government.
Case history
On October 26, 2016, B S Yeddyurappa and 12 others accused, including his two sons and son-in-law, were charged with receiving D40 crore kickbacks from mining firms for official favours given to them when Yeddyurappa was CM. The Special Court for CBI gave a clean chit.
All 13 accused were acquitted for the offences punishable under the provisions of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act, on the ground that prosecution had failed to prove the alleged conspiracy between accused for commission of the offences beyond all reasonable doubts.