Yeddyurappa gets a breather after HC quashes FIR against him

Bangalore, Mar 7: In a huge relief to former Karnataka CM BS Yeddyurappa, the Karnataka High Court has quashed the FIR that was filed against him in the illegal mining case. The case was filed based on former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde.

The decision was made by a division bench comprising justices Bhakstavatsala and Govindaraju who passed the order based on an application filed by Yeddyurappa challenging the Lokayukta police FIR. Yeddyurappa also challenged Governor H R Bhardwaj's appeal that directed the Lokayukta to initiate criminal proceedings against him in August last year.

Yeddyurappa's argument was that he was not allowed to explain his stand that was later upheld by the court. It has to be remembered that the Lokayukta report on illegal mining had convicted him of the charges who had to let go of his CM post.

The corruption charges against Yeddyurappa had weighed heavily on the BJP central leadership who forced him to quit on July 31 in lieu of the Lokayukta findings. The report had mentioned that a trust managed by Yeddyurappa's family, the Prerana Trust had received Rs 10 crore as donation from the South West Mining Company that is alleged to be kickbacks.

Hegde had mentioned in his report that the payments were made to the trust expecting favours from the then CM Yeddyurappa by the mining company. BSY had rejected all the allegations. The counsel for Yeddyurappa, Sandeep Patil stated that this was a welcome order and was a major victory since he had to relinquish his post based on this very Lokayukta report.

OneIndia News