B'lore: Yeddyurappa Gets Anticipatory Bail in Graft Case

Bangalore, Jun 21 (IANS): In a relief to beleaguered former chief minister B.S. Yeddurappa, the Karnataka High Court Thursday granted him anticipatory bail in a corruption case related to the multi-crore-rupee mining scam being probed by the CBI on the direction of the Supreme Court.

Justice Subash B. Adi, who pronounced the order, also granted anticipatory bail to Yeddyurappa's two sons -- B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra -- and his son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar, who were also accused of receiving kickbacks from mining firms.

Yeddyurappa and kin approached the high court after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court rejected their anticipatory bail plea June 13 in the mining bribery case.

Accepting arguments of Yeddyurappa's counsel C.V. Nagesh and his kin's counsel Ashok Harnahalli against the defence put up by CBI's advocate Ashok Bhan, Adi granted anticipatory bail to all the four accused on the condition that they furnish a bond of Rs.200,000 each and two sureties of the same amount each.

"The accused should also not leave Bangalore without the permission of the CBI and shall not tamper with evidence. The CBI can approach this court for cancellation of the anticipatory bail if any of the conditions are violated," Adi said in a jam-packed court.

The CBI registered the cases against the accused May 15 after the apex court May 11 accepted the recommendation of its appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) for a thorough investigation into the alleged kickbacks received by them for granting mining leases to Jindal Steel Works (JSW) and its subsidiary South West Mining Ltd.

The cases mainly pertain to donation of Rs.10 crore by South West Mining to Prerna Education Trust, set up by Yeddyurappa's kin, and the mining firm purchasing from Raghavendra and Vijayendra 1.12 acres of land that was freed from government control in 2010 when Yeddyurappa was the chief minister.

The CEC also charged Yeddyurappa's kin of receiving Rs.6 crore bribe from mining baron Praveen Chandra through real estate firms set up by them.

Yeddyurappa, who was the Bharatiya Janata Party's first chief minister in south India, resigned July 31 after the then Lokayukta (ombudsman), Justice (retd) N. Santosh Hegde, indicted him and recommended his trial in the mining scam.