Lokayukta raids offices of BS Yeddyurappa's son-in-law

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Lokayukta police on Tuesday raided the residence and office premises of RN Sohan Kumar, the son-in-law of former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, in Bangalore searching for evidence in an alleged illegal land denotification case.

Besides Kumar's real estate firm Dhavalagiri properties, the Lokayukta police also raided his residence. However, sources said that they could not find any substantial evidence.

"The Lokayukta police officers forming four teams had a search warrant issued by the designated court of Lokayukta to conduct raids at the Dhavalagiri properties offices. We have seized some documents from the office of the real estate firm, but there was nothing at Sohan Kumar's house that can be used as an evidence against him," according to a Lokayukta official.

The police did seize some documents which records the properties owned by the Dhavalagiri. "We have made the inventory and we will have to look into the documents seized at the company premises," the sources said. The raid was also conducted on Sahyadri Health Care and Diagnostics at Sagar Hospitals in Tilaknagar, the sources added. Yeddyurappa, who is campaigning for the forthcoming bypoll in Koppal, remarked that he was already aware of the ensuing raid on Monday itself.

Sohan Kumar is one of the alleged accused in several cases of corruption relating to land denotification and awarding of government contract in an irrigation project. The cases against him are in pending at the Lokayukta special court. Besides Kumar, the other accused in these cases are Yeddyurappa's two sons - BY Raghavendra and BY Vijayendra, besides two legislators and several others.

A Lokayukta court headed by judge NK Sudhindra Rao is hearing five complaints against Yeddyurappa and other accused filed by two Bangalore advocates Sirajin Bhasha and NK Balraj in January this year. These raids come a day after Lokayukta Shivaraj Patil quit following a row over taking two housing plots from cooperative housing societies in Bangalore violating norms.

Patil's resignation was accepted by Governor HR Bhardwaj on Tuesday and Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said the search is on for a new Lokayukta.