Bengaluru, Jul 3: In a setback to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, a special court for public representatives on Saturday dismissed the 'B-Report' by the Lokayukta police seeking the closure of investigation against him in a 15-year-old case relating to denotification of prime land in Bengaluru.
The court also directed the Lokayukta police to expedite the investigation and furnish the final or additional final report.
Judge Sridhar Gopalakrishna Bhat said in his order, "The B Report submitted by the investigation officer under section 173(2) of CrPC is hereby rejected."
"Consequently, acting under section 156(3) of CrPC, the Deputy Superintendent of Police attached to the police wing of Karnataka Lokayuktha, Bengaluru is hereby directed to investigate the matter further in the light of the observation made in this order and to file final report/additional final report expeditiously as per law."
The court also reminded the investigation officer to keep in mind the observations made by the Karnataka High Court with regard to delay in conducting investigation.
The case pertains to the denotification of prime land in Bellandur and Devarabeesanahalli, which was related to Varthur-Whitefield IT Corridor.The land was acquired in 2000-2001 for an IT park.
However, in 2006-07, as the Deputy Chief Minister in the JD(S)-BJP coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy, Yediyurappa denotified the land according to the private complaint lodged by Vasudeva Reddy with the Lokayukta court alleging irregularities in the denotification.
The court directed the Lokayukta police to register a case, based on which a case was registered on February 21, 2015 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In December 2020, Yediyurappa had filed a petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the case.
Yediyurappa had contended that the High Court had quashed the same FIR against the then Industries minister and Congress leader R V Deshpande on October 9, 2015.
Hence, the investigation against him based on the same FIR was illegal but the court rejected his argument.
Dismissing the petition, Justice John Michael Cunha directed the police to intensify the investigation.
The Lokayukta police had filed a 'B Report' seeking closure of the investigation which Reddy had challenged.
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Gangolli: In an operation, the Gangolli police arrested a couple accused of a house robbery within seven hours of the incident.
The accused, identified as Vinayak (41) and his wife Pramila (30) from Gujjadi, were taken into custody following a coordinated investigation by the police team.
The robbery took place on the morning of January 21 when a bag containing jewelry was stolen from a house near Trasi Beach. Among the stolen items were a 16-gram gold necklace, a 16-gram bangle, and three gold rings weighing 3 grams, with the total value of the jewelry estimated at Rs 2 lakh. The culprits fled the scene on a scooty.
Following the registration of the case at the Gangolli police station, SSI Harish R. and a team comprising officers Shantaram, Raju, Nagaraj, Raghavendra, Sandeep Kurani, Maruti Nayak, and Dinesh swiftly gathered intelligence and tracked down the suspects by 8 p.m. on the same day. The stolen gold ornaments and the vehicle used in the crime have been recovered.
The accused were presented before the court, and further legal proceedings are underway.