JOIN USGowda, along with four advocates, released a booklet titled ‘Lokayukta Report, Sri B S Yeddyurappa A Scapegoat?’ where they state the report is flawed, and that it has particularly targeted Yeddyurappa and the BJP government.
The booklet, authored by advocates Prakash M G, E M Akandeshwara, M Majesh and Ambarish, also states the Lokayukta institution was not being just.
“If the highest executive of the State, who is a popularly elected person, can be thrown out of the office by way of perfunctory investigation, can it be expected that any government employee will secure justice in such a system?” it states.
Gowda said the booklet was prepared for the “people of the State to know and understand the truth”.
He said the real perpetrators of crime had escaped indictment by Lokayukta, while only Yeddyurappa was targeted.
Denial of natural justice
He said the principles of natural justice were violated as the former chief minister was not even heard before he was booked. When asked whether he had no faith in the Lokayukta institution, Gowda said Karnataka was the ‘mother of the Lokayukta legislation’ and that he had complete faith in the institution.
The report further claimed that Yeddyurappa is not connected to Prerana Trust, as it is run by Prof M R Doraiswamy, and the said amount of Rs 10 crore received from South West Mining company was spent on construction of a building utilised by the Trust.
The booklet also lists trusts run by other politicians in the State, including the Siddartha Vihar Trust run by Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge. Other politicians, too, like KPCC president G Parameshwara and former Union minister R L Jalappa run trusts and receive donations.
“How can the Lokayukta consider Yeddyurappa received the donations as illegal gratification ?”
No comments: Hegde
When contacted, former Lokayukta Justice Santhosh Hegde said he hadn’t read the booklet and that he didn’t intend to.
“If they don’t have the patience or the inclination to read my report, which has been reduced from 25,000 pages to 20 pages, then I have nothing to comment. I will only choose to throw the booklet into the waste paper basket. It took me three years to prepare the illegal mining report, while four officers have worked on it for one full year. I won’t get into arguments with such people,” he said.
Hegde also said if his report was so flawed, then why the government had chosen to refer it to the high-level committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary K Jairaj to take action against the officers.