SC extends stay on investigation in case against B S Yediyurappa

The Supreme Court on Monday extended the stay order on the investigation in an FIR lodged by Lokayukta police against former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa in a corruption case related to the award of a BDA contract for building a housing complex.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli also issued notice to the Karnataka government on a plea by the senior BJP leader.

As senior advocate Siddharth Dave on behalf of Yediyurappa mentioned that the state is not a party to the matter, the bench said "we should also have the benefit of assistance from the state even though it is a case related to a private complaint by activist T J Abraham."

The court said its interim order issued on September 23 would be extended till further directions.

The Karnataka High Court had, in an order on September 7, held that the rejection of the sanction would not come in the way of proceedings against Yediyurappa.

The case is related to the allegation of bribes to the tune of Rs 12 crore to award a BDA contract for a construction firm to build a housing complex for the government during his tenure as CM in 2019-21.

An FIR was lodged against the former Karnataka CM, his family members and others on September 16.

The bench had suspended a probe in the case of Yediyurappa but the investigation continued against his son B Y Vijayendra, son-in-law Sanjay Shree, and grandson Shashidhar Maradi and others, including Minister S T Somashekar, IAS officer G C Prakash and businessman K Ravi.