BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, his family members and others on a petition filed by a social activist, questioning the order passed by a special court rejecting his private complaint filed against them in a corruption case.
Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav issued the notice to Yediyurappa, his son and state BJP vice-president BY Vijayendra, MLA ST Somashekar, IAS officers Dr GC Prakash, Shashidhar Maradi, Sanjay Sree, Chandrakanth Ramalingam, K Ravi and Virupakshappa Yamakanamardi, after hearing the petition by TJ Abraham.The petitioner alleged that Yediyurappa and his family members accepted crores of rupees as bribe through ‘shell companies’ from a contractor for getting him bids to construct a multi-crore housing project of the BDA.
He contended that the former chief minister misused his influence and office to get the sanction for prosecution denied and got the office of the Governor to make out a letter dated June 24, 2021 addressed to the complainant. The letter was also made available to the DySP of ACB, Bengaluru. The public prosecutor, who is not supposed to represent any accused persons, was used to produce the letter to the special court, which rejected his complaint.
The DySP of ACB was present in the court on June 30, 2021 unauthorisedly and in violation of the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the high court, he alleged.The petitioner charged that the Governor of Karnataka sent a letter indicating the rejection of sanction to prosecute only Yediyurappa, but keeping quiet about Somashekar, although the request for sanction for prosecution was made through a common letter on November 20, 2020.
If there was no sanction against some accused, the trial court should have passed an order for investigation against the other accused or transferred the case to another court under Section 408 of CrPC. The procedure followed by the trial court has been vitiated and contrary to the procedure laid out in the code and authenticated by various judgements of the SC, he alleged.