BENGALURU: In a huge relief for BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, a special court constituted to try cases against elected representatives on Tuesday dismissed the land denotification case against him. Five cases were registered on a complaint related to denotification of two acres of land in Rachenahalli when he was chief minister in 2011. On Monday, the court had dropped the denotification case against Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
According to the counsel for Yeddyurappa, the issue of denotification of land was pending before the special court after all cases registered against elected representatives were transferred from different courts, including the Lokayukta Court. Prior to the special court taking up this case for a hearing, a similar case based on the same set of facts was dismissed by the CBI Special Court. In view of this, the special court too dismissed the case.
The counsel added that the Lokayukta had already dismissed the four cases against Yeddyurappa on denotification of land, after the Karnataka High Court quashed the sanction given to prosecute him.
Of the five cases registered against him, only one case was pending before the special court regarding denotification of two acres in Rachenahalli. Now, this case was also dismissed on the same grounds. The five cases were lodged against Yeddyurappa based on a private complaint filed by lawyer Sirajin Basha. All the five cases have been dismissed.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders have welcomed the court order. This, according to them, will boost morale of the party workers ahead of urban local body elections on August 31 and also in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
BJP general secretary and MLC N Ravi Kumar demanded Congress leaders to apologise for the “misinformation campaign” against Yeddyurappa. “It is a tight slap on the face of those who worked hard to frame Yeddyurappa with false denotification charges. The court order will boost the morale of party workers in the state,” Ravi Kumar said.
BJP general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao took to Twitter to welcome the order. "Satyameva Jayate! All charges of denotification against BSY were fabricated and today's verdict vindicates him of all the false allegations," he tweeted.