6 raids, 6 hrs, bags of evidence

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Former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was in shock on Wednesday morning when the Central Bureau of Investigation raided his homes and offices across the state, interrogating him for six hours in his official home on Race Course Road, even as CBI teams fanned out in his home town of Shimoga, and in mine-rich Bellary where the Jindal Steel Works’ offices were inspected.

The teams that raided BSY’s two homes were headed by DIG R. Hitendra and CBI Bengaluru S.P. Subramenshwara Rao. Concerned that their arrest was imminent, Mr Yeddyurappa, his two sons and his son-in-law, Sohan Kumar, applied for anticipatory bail, which has not yet been granted.

Chaos ruled as his son-in-law, Uday Kumar, based in Shimoga was taken from their Vinobanagar home, to open a bank locker in Syndicate Bank which was found to be empty. The offices of the family run Prerana Trust and Dhavalagiri Properties’ offices in the city were also raided as was Chitradurga based businessman-mine owner Praveen Chandra’s office in Bengaluru. Six teams from the CBI carried out the raids a day after the first information report was registered. The former chief minister was reading his newspapers when the CBI marched into his home, after an early team went around his Dollars’ Colony home with a fine tooth comb.

The raids were part of the CBI investigation into illegal mining cases and the allegation that Mr Yeddyurappa received kickbacks from South West Mining Ltd to curry favour. The Supreme Court has ordered the premier investigating agency to conduct the probe after receiving a report from the Central Empowered Committee. A release from the CBI headquarters in New Delhi stated that highly incriminating documents were found at Mr Yeddyurappa’s Race Course Road and Dollars’ Colony residences. Eyewitnesses said that CBI officials were seen leaving BSY’s private home with dozens of hand-written notes that the former CM used to jot down information, as well as two boxes stuffed with documents.

The CBI on Tuesday registered the FIR against Mr Yeddyurappa and others, under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer) Act. The CBI had obtained search warrants from the jurisdictional CBI special court in Bengaluru.

BSY daughter, son-in-law quizzed
Acting swiftly after filing a First Information Report (FIR) against former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, his sons and son-in-law in the illegal mining case, the CBI conducted raids on his properties in Shimoga on Wednesday.

A 6-member CBI team arrived at the residence of Mr Yeddyurappa at Vinobanagar around 7.30 am. They questioned Mr Yeddyurappa’s daughter Mrs S.Y. Aruna Devi and son-in-law Uday Kumar and collected information regarding family properties and personal details. The CBI officials questioned the couple for more than five hours and searched for documents and other details about properties.

Around 12.30 pm, the CBI sleuths who came out of the residence, took Mr Uday Kumar to the branches of Syndicate Bank and State Bank of Mysore to check the safe lockers of the accounts related to PES College for any relevant record. They examined the bank accounts of Mr Yeddyurappa’s family members and PES College for nearly one hour.

Speaking to ‘Deccan Chronicle’ Mrs Aruna Devi said, “The CBI personnel arrived at 7.30 am as part of their investigation. I and my husband Mr Uday cooperated with them over their queries regarding personal information, bank accounts and insurance policies. They have gone to check our bank accounts and also those of PES College.”

When asked whether the CBI officials have taken them into custody, she denied it. To a question, Mrs Aruna Devi said, “As the Shimoga residence is in the name of my brother B.Y.Vijayendra, the CBI personnel have come to check the property documents”. The CBI team later left for Bengaluru.