Special Court orders registration of 'criminal case' against former CM Yediyurappa
Bengaluru, Mar 30: A Special Court in Bengaluru has ordered the registration of a 'special criminal case' against former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa regarding alleged corruption in a land denotification issue when he was the deputy CM in the BJP-JDS coalition government in 2006-07.
Sessions Judge B Jayantha Kumar of the special court, set up exclusively to deal with criminal cases related to elected MPs/MLAs in Karnataka, has issued the order on March 26, based on a private complaint by one Vasudeva Reddy.
"Register a Special Criminal Case against the accused No.2 Sri B.S.Yediyurappa for the offence punishable under Sec.13(1)(d) R/w Sec.13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Issue summons to accused No.2 for his attendance only after filing of list of witnesses as required under Sec.204(2) Cr.P.C., and process fee is paid," the order says.
According to the complainant, the state government under the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Act acquired 434 acres of land in Bellandur, Devarabeesanahalli, Kariyammana Agrahara and Amanibellandur Khane to establish an Information Technology park. The same was however denotified by Yeddiyurappa "in favour of private persons without any public benefit."
The court in its order said the complainant has made a prima facie case against Yediyurappa, who has to be summoned to the court after due process.
"I am of the considered opinion that there are sufficient material to proceed against the accused by registering Special Criminal Case and summoning the accused No.2 for his attendance and give an opportunity to the complainant to establish his allegations against the accused No.2.
"I am of the considered opinion that there is nothing on record to disbelieve the case of the complainant at this stage. He has made out a prima facie case against the accused for the offence punishable under Sec.13(1)(d) R/w Sec.13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988," the court noted.
Yediyurappa was the second accused in the original complaint filed by Vasudeva Reddy in 2013 with the then Industries Minister R V Deshpande being the accused number one. The case against Deshpande, however, came to be quashed by the High Court in 2015.
Yediyurappa remains the sole accused in this case now. The Lokayukta police which investigated the case filed a 'B' Report in the case giving a clean chit to Yediyurappa citing that there was no evidence of illegal gratification.
In a criminal case, the B Report submitted in court means that the police has completed the investigation and there is no offence made out against the accused.
The Special Court, though, had rejected the B Report in 2021.
In its latest order, the court has specified that the lack of evidence of illegal gratification to the accused does not prohibit initiating investigation under Section 13(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
