BSY faces non-bailable warrant

The Special Lokayukta court on Monday ordered issue of non-bailable arrest warrants against former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and others for not appearing in the court for a hearing pertaining to illegal denotification of land.

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao ordered the issue of the warrant, after Yeddyurappa and others failed to appear in court for a hearing on the private complaints filed by advocate Sirajin Basha.

As no counsel was available owing to lawyers’ boycotting court proceedings in protest against the media, a letter was delivered to the court submitting that Yeddyurappa was seeking exemption from appearance as he was travelling due to recent political developments.

Yeddyurappa had not attended the court in the last two hearings as well, and had sought exemption, once as he was recuperating from an eye surgery, and the second time due to political constraints.

Violation of bail condition

The judge refused to consider the exemption application and stated it was a violation of bail conditions and ordered the issue of the arrest warrants. The warrants have also been issued against his sons B Y Vijayendra, B Y Raghavendra, his son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar and former Minister Krishnaiah Setty in one case, and against V Prakash in another.

They have all been directed to appear before the court on March 24. All the others were present in the court.

However, it is unlikely that the Lokayukta police will attempt to execute the arrest warrant as Yeddyurappa has time to appear in the court before March 24 to file an application for recall of the warrant.

Yeddyurappa is presently in Delhi. He has already spent three weeks in jail after his bail application was rejected by the court in October in these two cases. He later obtained bail from the High Court.

The two complaints pertain to illegal denotification of land in Arakere village, Devarachikkanahalli, Geddalahalli, Agara, Uttarahalli and Rachenahalli.