HC imposes Rs one lakh cost on advocate

Guv, Datta had a role in sending Yeddyurappa to jail, he told court

Hearing the petition filed by H R Vishwanath, the Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen and Justice A S Bopanna dismissed the petition with a direction to the petitioner to deposit the money in the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund within four weeks.

Criminal conspiracy

Vishwanath, who argued for half-an-hour, submitted before the court that Governor Bhardwaj, Home Minister R Ashoka, BJP parliamentarian Ananth Kumar and former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde had conspired against Yeddyurappa to unseat him from power and finish him politically.

Accusing them of  “hatching a criminal conspiracy to unseat Yeddyurappa,” the advocate appealed to the court to issue a mandamus to constitute a committee for probing the “criminal conspiracy” against the former chief minister, which had landed him jail.

He submitted that Datta had cheated 27 people after promising to get them seats in professional colleges. A case has been booked against him in Kolkata. How can a case filed by such person be entertained, Vishwanath asked.

He alleged that Bhardwaj, before according sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa, had not scrutinised the papers.

Inquiry

Stating that the intentions of complainants Sirajin Basha and Balraj were not honest, the petitioner sought directions from the court to order a probe into the matter by a retired high court judge or a sitting judge or by the  Lokayukta court.

‘Not a political set-up’

After listening to his submission, the Bench said: “Don’t convert this court into a political set-up. We want to keep away from politics.”

The Bench dismissed the matter with an observation: “The petitioner has wasted half-an-hour of public time by wasting the time of this court. Though the petitioner claims the petition is of public interest, there is no public interest in it.”

The court, pointing to the petitioner’s statement that the Lokayukta court had failed to look into the background and encouraged the respondents in the case against Yeddyurappa, said there was no material to support the charges. “It has been done with an intention to please someone.”

The court, imposing a cost of Rs one lakh on Vishwanath, directed the authorities to recover the money from him  as per the Land Revenue Act if he fails to comply within four weeks.

List of visitors who met BSY in jail submitted Bangalore DHNS: The Central Prison authorities here on Tuesday informed the High Court that as per the records between October 22 and November 7, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had not visited former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in jail while he was in judicial custody. The list of  VVIPs who visited Yeddyurappa during his stay in the prison at Parappana Agrahara includes BJP State president K S Eshwarappa, Umadevi, his sons Raghavendra, Vijayendra, Minister V Somanna, Suresh Gowda, Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh Katti, Lehar Singh, Puttaswamy and Shobha Karandlaje. The authorities filed the list after K N A Reddy, a retired SP, filed a PIL alleging violation of norms and guidelines of the Karnataka Jail Manual at the Parappana Agrahara jail. He also claimed that Chief Minister Gowda and other ministers broke the rules by visiting Yeddyurappa in jail. The matter has been adjourned.