BSY, sons appear in court

Yeddyurappa had been directed to appear in the court in one case, while he had been issued summons in another case. Both cases are private complaints filed by advocate Sirajin Basha and related to illegal denotification of land. The cases were taken up on Monday afternoon where along with Yeddyurappa every one of the accused who had been issued in both cases were present in the court.

Bail applications have been filed on behalf of all the accused. Judge N K Sudhindra Rao has directed the filing of  objections on the bail applications of all the accused in both cases and posted the matters to September 7. Yeddyurappa’s counsel Ravi B Naik sought to file an exemption application on grounds of health but the judge chose to hear the matter on September 7.

The judge is also expected to issue an order on the whether the special public prosecutor should argue the case on behalf of the complainant on the same day.

Earlier in the day, Yeddyurappa, his two sons Raghavendra and Vijayendra, son-in-law Sohan Kumar were not present for the hearing. On being assured by Yeddyurappa’s counsel that they would be present in the afternoon, the matter was posted to afternoon. However, former minister Krishnaiah Shetty and MLA D Hemachandra Sagar were present in the morning.

The crowds in the Civil Court swelled in anticipation of his appearance and the court hall was packed to capacity. Yeddyurappa and his family arrived 15 minutes before the commencement of hearings under heavy police cover and was present in the court for a total of 45 minutes.

Even the corridors outside were filled with people and the police were unable to control the crowds.  The decibel level in the corridors was so high that the proceedings could not be heard in the court hall. Finally, the advocates and the judge had to speak in a higher tone to be heard above the melee.

Drama

As if the appearance of Yeddyurappa did not create enough drama, a woman appeared in the court hall almost at the end of the proceedings, protesting loudly against Yeddyurappa and demanding justice be done. The woman was told by the judge to speak to a lawyer about her problems. She was immediately whisked away out of the court hall by advocates.

Later, the woman in her fifties, who identified herself as Saraswati Bai said she owned land measuring 2 acres and 3 guntas in Hanumanthanagar.

The land, she claimed were classified by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) as a civic amenity site and later given to educationist Doreswamy Naidu. “Doreswamy Naidu later returned the site after the controversy over the allotment of the site, but the BDA has still not returned it to me,” she claimed.

Saraswati Bai also said that she went to Yeddyurappa’s office at Krishna, when he was the chief minister and got a letter from him stating that if the land indeed belonged to her, then it should be returned to her. “But after I applied under RTI, I found out that it was he (Yeddyurappa) who had recommended that the site be handed over to Doreswamy in the first place,” she said.