Probe against BSY: Apex court refuses to interfere

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Karnataka High Court’s order staying the investigation against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in three cases relating to land de-notification in Bengaluru.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre suggested senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for the Karnataka government, to approach the High Court itself against the interim order of stay issued on September 15.

“Why don’t you approach the High Court? It’s an interim order only,” the bench told Singh.
The counsel contended that the order was passed when even the special public prosecutor was not present.

Senior advocate K V Viswanathan, appearing for Yeddyurappa, pointed out that the matter was already listed before the High Court on Tuesday. On this, the apex court preferred to adjourn the matter relating to the three separate special leave petitions.

The petitions filed by advocate Joseph Aristotle sought direction for setting aside the September 15 order of the High Court, contending it had “virtually stalled the entire investigation” while acting on a plea by Yeddyurappa.

The Lokayukta police had in June this year registered three first information reports (FIRs) against the senior BJP leader and others for the alleged offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy and under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Karnataka Land (Restriction on Transfer Act).

Denotification cases
The three cases are related to denotification of land measuring six acres and 18 guntas acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority for the formation of Banashankari V stage, one acre and 17 guntas for the formation of BTM IV stage, and one acre for the formation of further extension of Mahalakshmi Layout.