Thaindian News

Bangalore/New Delhi, March 24 (IANS) In a major embarrassment to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, a Bangalore court Thursday ordered a police probe into a land deal from which he is alleged to have made over Rs.19 crore.

The court order came on a day the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s state president K.S. Eshwarappa landed in New Delhi leading a group of party legislators who want Yeddyurappa replaced to save the party from further damage.

The probe will be conducted by the police attached to the state Lokayukta (ombudsman), Additional City Civil and Sessions judge C.B. Hipparagi ordered.

The probe should be completed by May 4, said Hipparagi, who is hearing five complaints of alleged corruption and illegal land deals against Yeddyurappa.

The complaints were filed by Bangalore advocates Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj in last week of January after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj agreed to their Dec 28 plea for sanction to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa over corruption and illegal land deals.

The probe is into the first complaint that Yeddyurappa had denotified (freed from government control) more than one acre of land in Rachenahalli village in east Bangalore in 2006 in violation of rules and regulations.

The complaint alleged that land was subsequently sold to Yeddyurappa’s son B.Y. Vijayendra and son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar for Rs.40 lakh.

The two, in turn, sold the land to a mining firm, South West Mining Limited, for Rs.20 crore, “making an unlawful gain of Rs 19.6 crore,” the complaint said.

Besides Yeddyurappa, others named in the five complaints include his two sons, Vijayendra and B.Y. Raghavendra, who is a BJP Lok Sabha member, and son-in-law Sohan Kumar.

Yeddyurappa has denied any wrong-doing in denotifying the lands and claimed that his predecessors belonging to Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and gthe Congress also acted similarly.

He has also rejected demands for his resignation, asserting that no case has been filed against him but only private complaints.

However, the court order for police probe has come when challenge to Yeddyurappa’s continuance as chief minister is mounting, this time led by state unit chief Eshwarappa himself.

“There are some problems in the state. Ministers and MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) have communicated their problems to me. I am going to Delhi to convey their grievances to the high command,” Eshwarappa told reporters at Bangalore airport.

He is accompanied by at least two party lawmakers while more may join him in New Delhi.

Eshwarappa’s Delhi mission came as Yeddyurappa Thursday faced the embarrassment of around ten ministers staying away from a meeting he called to review the functioning of various ministries.

This is the second time in less than a week that many ministers have ignored his meeting call.

On March 18, only 50 of the 107 BJP legislators turned up at the meeting Yeddyurappa convened, two days after a group of around 50 BJP lawmakers met Eshwarappa to complain against the chief minister.

Eshwarappa’s Delhi visit also comes two days after Yeddyurappa met BJP president Nitin Gadkari and other party leaders in New Delhi to brief them about the continuing dissidence against him in the state unit.

C.T. Ravi, a legislator from Chikamagalur and a ministerial aspirant who is accompanying Eshwarappa to Delhi, did not mince words when asked about the purpose of the visit.

“The party is important than any individual. We will brief the high command on the problems faced by legislators,” Ravi said.

Among those who stayed away from Yeddyurappa’s Thursday meeting were Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy, his brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy and their close associate and Health Minister B. Sriramulu.

The Reddy brothers, rich iron mine owners, had almost brought Yeddyurappa government down in late 2009.