CBI court acquits Yeddyurappa in bribery case

BENGALURU: A CBI special court on Wednesday acquitted BJP state unit president BS Yeddyurappa in a bribery case.

Yeddyurappa, his sons Raghavendra and Vijayendra, son-in-law Sohan Kumar and officials of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel were accused of taking Rs 40 crore through Prerana Trust and Swamy Vivekananda Samsthe in return for favours to a mining company, including providing licence. Yeddyurappa himself is atrustee in the latter organisation.

The special court of Justice Dharmagoudar has acquitted all the accused in the case on grounds of lack of evidence. The CBI had filed a charge-sheet accusing Yeddyurappa and others of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and corruption.

Yeddyurappa, who had stepped down as chief minister of Karnataka and went to jail for three weeks in October 2011, tried to get these charges quashed in the Karnataka High Court and Supreme Court, but did not succeed.

Yeddyurappa said, “I always had faith in the judiciary and I have been proved right.” His supporters celebrated in Bengaluru, even as the ruling Congress, including CM Siddaramaiah expressed reservations over the verdict.

“This verdict is really big. The Congress and the JD (S) have no agenda to talk against him now. The Congress president ( Sonia Gandhi) and vice-president Rahul Gandhi are out on bail, but Yeddyurappa has been acquitted,” BJP political strategist in Karnataka, Chennamallikarjuna Patil told ET.

“There is already a BJP wave in the state. This will just boost the morale of Yeddyurappa himself and that of the party workers,” he added. The state’s Congress working president Dinesh Gundurao, also an AICC spokesperson, said, “This verdict was expected the day the BJP announced that Yeddyurappa was their CM candidate.”