Will not summon or arrest Yeddyurappa till Monday, ACB to HC

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the State on Wednesday gave an undertaking to the Karnataka High Court that it will neither summon nor arrest the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa till August 28 in connection with the two cases registered against him on the allegation that he had misused his position as Chief Minister for illegal denotification of acquired lands. Senior counsel Ravi Varma Kumar, appearing for the ACB, gave the undertaking when Mr. Yeddyurappa’s counsel, C.V. Nagesh, pointed out that the ACB had on August 21 issued another notice to Mr. Yeddyurappa asking him to appear before it on August 24 as it wanted to “expedite the investigation”. Mr. Kumar also assured the court that the notice issued on August 21 would be withdrawn. An undertaking on behalf of the ACB was given as the court on Wednesday could not conclude hearing arguments on Mr. Yeddyurappa’s interim plea for staying the investigation. Deleted Earlier, Mr. Nagesh had agreed to delete the allegation levelled in the petition that the Chief Minister is misusing the ACB to target his political opponents, after Mr. Kumar pointed out that neither the Chief Minister nor the State government are made a party in the petitioneven though allegations were levelled against them. Mr. Nagesh contended that Mr. Yeddyurappa had only recommended to the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) to delete around 257 acres of land from acquisition after receipt of grievances from landowners whose lands were identified for acquisition in the preliminary notification for the formation of Dr. K. Shivarama Karanth layout. The BDA did not act on Mr. Yeddyurappa’s recommendation, but only passed a resolution stating that some lands cannot be used for the formation of layout citing various reasons. Mr. Nagesh also pointed out that the High Court itself has quashed acquisition of land as the BDA had not formed the layout within the statutory period of five years. Mr. Nagesh also alleged that registration of FIR itself is illegal as it was registered two months after receipt of the complaint — filed on June 6, 2017 from one D. Aiyappa. As per law laid down by the apex court, preliminary investigation shall be completed within 15 days from the receipt of complaint and six weeks in an exceptional case. He also argued that law does not permit registration of two FIRs based on a same complaint. Justice Aravind Kumar, who is hearing the petitions filed by Mr. Yeddyurappa, adjourned further hearing till August 28 as the court is closed for two days of festival holidays.