Yeddyurappa's graft probe picks up pace
Probe into charges that former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his kin received bribes from the illegal mining mafia gathered momentum on Monday with the police registering the first information report (FIR).
"An FIR has been registered and further investigation is being taken up," Jeevan Kumar Goenka, additional director general of police attached to Lokayukta (ombudsman), told reporters here.
The registration of FIR under Section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code is the first step for the police to begin investigation into the complaint.
Yeddyurappa, his two sons B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra and son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar are charged with making Rs.30 crore from firms involved in illegal mining.
Yeddyurappa, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) first chief minister in Karnataka, quit on July 31 after the former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde recommended to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj his trial for graft.
Raghavendra, a BJP Lok Sabha member from Shimoga, about 280 km from here, and Vijayendra are said to have received Rs.10 crore from South West Mining Company for their Prerana Education Trust.
The two and Sohan Kumar also allegedly sold one acre of land near Bangalore to another mining firm for Rs.20 crore while the market value was around just Rs.1 crore.
Accepting Hegde's recommendation, Bhardwaj directed newly appointed Lokayukta Shivaraj Patil on August 3 to probe the charges against Yeddyurappa and submit a report to him.
Patil accepted Bhardwaj's recommendation on August 20 and directed Goenka to start the probe.
Yeddyurappa has filed two petitions in the high court, one challenging Lokayukta recommendation to try him and the other seeking anticipatory bail in another graft case against him.
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