The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka today asked Governor H R Bhardwaj not to grant sanction to prosecute Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa over the land scam allegations.
“Your excellency’s action of consideration of the request for sanction will not inspire confidence that the decision would be judicious, fair and bona fide,” the cabinet said in a strongly-worded resolution passed at an emergency meeting, here this morning.
With Bhardwaj categorically telling Yeddyurappa that he would accord sanction after Republic Day, the chief minister wrote a letter opposing the move and the state cabinet followed up with a ‘unanimous’ resolution supporting him.
State law minister S Suresh Kumar, who read out the cabinet resolution to reporters said the resolution was adopted on the basis of Yeddyurappa’s letter to Bhardwaj. The resolutions would be sent to the governor, he said.
Bhardwaj had also told the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) delegations that he would accord the sanction.
Yeddyurappa, the BJP’s first chief minister in south India, is facing charges of favouring his sons, daughter, son-in-law, sister, her daughter and son-in-law with prime residential and commercial land in and around Bangalore.
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Yeddyurappa has since made his kin surrender the land and ordered a judicial probe into land allotment from 1995 to November 2010. The period covers the rule of six chief ministers, including Yeddyurappa who took over in May 2008. The judicial probe is headed by B Padmaraja, retired judge of the Karnataka High Court.
The cabinet met for the second time in two days after Yeddyurappa’s visit to New Delhi last night for talks with the party’s legal advisor and senior leader Arun Jaitley who is also in charge of the state’s affairs. Kumar said, Bhardwaj had “categorically told the chief minister on December 31 he would grant sanction for prosecution” sought by two Bangalore advocates.
Three days later, on January 3, Bhardwaj’s office wrote to state chief secretary S V Ranganath, seeking documents in 93 cases before January 20, Kumar said, indirectly pointing that the governor had made up his mind to accord sanction even before calling for the records.
The advocates, Sirajin Bhasha and K N Balakrishna, submitted documents running into 1,700 pages to Bhardwaj on December 28 and claimed the papers establish over 100 cases of nepotism, misconduct and corruption by Yeddyurappa, his two sons and some cabinet colleagues.
They sought Bhardwaj’s sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa and, home and transport minister R Ashok.
On Tuesday, Bhardwaj had said “it is a ticklish issue” and he was going through the documents and would take a decision without delay.
Kumar said the cabinet noted that neither Yeddyurappa nor Ashok had been indicted by any investigating agency or an enquiry commission for the governor to sanction their prosecution.