Land denotification: why Yeddyurappa was sent to jail

The state of Karnataka has been witness to dramatic scenes in the last few hours as former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was taken into judicial custody over allegations of denotifying government land for monetary gain. The Karnataka Lokayukta first rejected his bail plea on the premise that Yeddyurappa, being an influencial person, is capable of tampering with the evidence and changing the course of investigations. [caption id=“attachment_108880” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Screen grab from CNN IBN”]  [/caption] Before his arrest, Yeddyurappa had gone into hiding. Lokayukta police had reached his residence but were not able to meet him. There were no clues of his whereabouts and all his secretaries had switched off their phones. He surrendered later that evening however and was taken to Agrahara Central Jail shortly thereafter. But early this morning he was rushed to hospital after complaining of chest pain. The charges against Yeddyurappa were brought against him by two Bangalore advocates Sirajin Bhasha and N.K. Balaraj in January this year after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj gave them sanction to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa and his kin for conspiring to denotify lands in and around Bangalore in return for monetary gains. The case  alleged irregularitiesin denotification of lands in Arakere, Devarachikkanahalli and Geddalahalli. In a statement to the court Basha said that  Yeddyurappa had misused his office and powers, and caused a huge loss to the government. The two Bangalore advocates have filed five cases in total against Yeddyurappa, his two sons, son-in-law and others. The other three cases are currently being heard.  Yeddyurappa is the first accused in all the five cases of illegal land denotification for monetary gains. Ravi B Naik, Yeddyurappa’s counsel has said the former chief minister would challenge the Lokayukta court order in the High Court. Yeddyurappa will also seek bail from the High Court.