NBW against Forest Minister

A magistrate court here has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Forest Minister C P Yogeeshwar following his failure to appear before it in connection with two cases in the Megacity scam.

The First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) issued the NBW on June 30 — the day Yogeeshwar was required to appear before the court, B P Puttasiddaiah, Standing Counsel for the State government, said.

Yogeeshwar floated Megacity (Bangalore) Developers and Builders Ltd in 2009. At present, he is the firm’s Managing Director. Besides the Minister, arrest warrants have been issued against his wife N Manjukumari, Arun Charantimath, Chairman, MDBL, and his wife Sujatha in one case. In another case, the warrant was issued only against Yogeeshwar, Puttasiddaiah added. The cases will be heard again on November 7, 2012.

Being a Cabinet Minister, Yogeeshwar will not be arrested by the police. Instead, proceedings will be initiated against him through the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Puttasiddaiah said.

MBDL had shown an amount of Rs 37.22 crore as paid to sundry debtors (miscellaneous small or infrequent customers who are not assigned individual ledger accounts but classified as a group) in 2005-06. It was shown as advance paid for purchase of land for Vajragiri project launched by MDBL between 1995-96 and 2005-06. It was, however, later found that no land was acquired by the real estate company although it showed the fraudulent deeds in its account. The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs had filed cases against the firm in the connection.

Yogeeshwar has also been accused in a criminal case filed by a subsidiary company of Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (Nice) of cheating it of Rs 2 crore and breach of trust. Ashok Kheny, MD, Nice, had lodged the complaint before the Vidhana Soudha police station.