Court asks BSY to appear before it on Monday

Mtoday news / PTI

Bangalore, August 27:The posting of cases by the special Lokayukta court on Saturday has created an uncomfortable situation for two former chief ministers, B S Yeddyurappa and H D Kumaraswamy.

Both had hearings scheduled in two separate cases on Saturday. While Yeddyurappa had been summoned to appear in a private complaint, Kumaraswamy had filed an anticipatory bail plea.

 

Special Lokayukta court judge N K Sudhindra Rao, while directing Yeddyurappa to appear in court on Monday, posted the anticipatory bail hearing of Kumaraswamy to Tuesday. Yeddyurappa has already been issued summons to appear in another case in the same court on Monday. Kumaraswamy, too, has been summoned to appear in a private complaint on Tuesday in the same court.

Yeddyurappa managed to get an exemption from appearance on Saturday on account of ill health, but has been directed to appear in the court on Monday.  Yeddyurappa and 14 others had been summoned by the court based on a private complaint filed by advocate Sirajin Basha. The 14 others were present in the court.

For Yeddyurappa, a lot hinges on the outcome of the anticipatory bail plea at the High Court on Monday. Since matters will be taken up simultaneously at both the special Lokayukta court and the High Court on Monday, he is expected to request the trial court to take up the matter later in the day. If Yeddyurappa is granted anticipatory bail, advocates say his getting bail in other cases becomes a matter of procedure.

Seeking exemption from appearance on Saturday, Yeddyurappa’s counsel Ravi B Naik submitted that Yeddyurappa was suffering from hypertension and diabetes and was under the constant advice of doctors who had told him not to exert himself.

Apart from Yeddyurappa, his sons B Y Vijayendra, B Y Raghavendra, his son-in-law Sohan Kumar R N, former Minister Krishnaiah Setty, MLA Hemachandra Sagar and others have been summoned on Monday in another complaint filed by Basha.

During the anticipatory bail  plea hearing of Kumaraswamy and his wife Anita, counsel for the complainant, Vinod Kumar, argued that Kumaraswamy put pressure on the Commissioner of Mines and Geology Gangaram Baderia to approve the renewal of the mining licence for Janthakal Enterprises in a matter of two hours.

He also submitted that anticipatory bail should not be granted to Kumaraswamy as he was the son of a former prime minister and his political, social and economic clout could not be disputed.

However, Kumaraswamy’s counsel Hashmath Pasha rebutted the argument saying Gangaram Baderia was himself implicated in the Lokayukta’s first report on mining, where he  was alleged to have caused a loss of Rs 310 crore to the exchequer.

Pasha also submitted that there was no proof that Kumaraswamy had pressured Baderia to approve the renewal of the mining licence, and even after that, the ore had not been lifted by Janthakal.

Yeddyurappa hospitalised again
Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa was on Saturday admitted again to the Sagar Hospital in Bangalore due to “ill health”.

Yeddyurappa was supposed to appear before a Lokayukta court on Saturday in a land scam case.

But his counsel submitted before the court that his client was running temperature. This is the second time in a week that Yeddyurappa has been hospitalised. He has to appear before the Lokayukta court on Monday in another land scam case.