'Yeddyurappa's home was his office extension'

Denotification case a white-collar crime, argues Bashas counsel

Basha has filed private complaints in the Special Lokayukta Court against Yeddyurappa and his family for denotifying several pieces of land illegally and benefiting from it.

The court is currently hearing the bail applications of all the accused in two private complaints.

Arguing for Basha on Saturday, counsel Nitin R said the case was unique and a well-crafted white-collar crime.

“The house of the chief minister had become an extension of his office. All access to records and faster movement of files were enabled from the house,” he said, indicating Yeddyurappa’s family was closely involved in the denotifications.

Seeking to establish a connection between the actions of Yeddyurappa’s sons and his son-in-law Sohan Kumar, Nitin said they became remarkable entrepreneurs only during Yeddyurappa’s tenure as the deputy chief minister and chief minister.

He listed several companies operated by the family — Dhavalagiri Properties, Bhagath Homes, Sahyadri Diagnostics, Candor Business Solutions, SOA Matrix Software, Fluid Power Technologies, Prerana Education Trust, Adarsh Developers and Ratna Cements.

While some of the companies existed earlier and Yeddyurappa’s family purchased a majority stake in them, some others were started between 2007 and 2010.

“All these came to the fore only after Yeddyurappa came to power. It is not at all a coincidence,” Nitin said. He submitted that this was one of the rare cases where a private complaint had been filed and was being heard. “We are now empowered and emboldened by the RTI, which allows us to dig deeper and obtain details. This is not a reckless complaint. A lot of toil has gone into it,” he submitted.

Making submissions on behalf of Yeddyurappa, his two sons Vijayendra and Raghavendra and his son-in-law Sohan Kumar, senior counsel Ravi B Naik took objection to the fact that the complaint lists B V Bhramara as a shareholder in Bhagath Homes, along with Sohan Kumar and Yeddyurappa’s daughters-in-law. “But no one in the family knows who Bhramara is and the annexure submitted to establish she is a close relative of Yeddyurappa is fabricated,” he said.

“This annexure is a creation. Bhramara is a fictitious name. They are playing mischief with the court,” he alleged.

He said the money paid by Krishnaiah Setty to Dhavalagiri Properties and Bhagath Homes was purely a business transaction, as they were all property developers and it was not a bribe in exchange for denotification of land for Telecom Housing Co-operative Society for developing a layout as alleged.

The orders on bail applications in two of the private complaints will be given on October 3.