The BJP's Karnataka unit president was charged for alleged receipt of illegal gr

atification from mining companies through the trusts managed by his family membe
rs.
In a big relief to the former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP State president B
.S. Yeddyurappa, a special CBI court on Wednesday acquitted him and all other ac
cused in the case of alleged receipt of illegal gratification from mining compan
ies through the trusts managed by his family members.
The case, popularly known as the South West Mining Case, was first brought to li
ght in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, Part II, submitted by then Lokayu
kta Justice N. Santosh Hegde. The CBI registered a case in May 2012, after activ
ist S.R. Hiremath filed the Lokayukta report in the Supreme Court and sought dir
ections to the CBI to probe into the instances of corruption listed in the repor
t.
The CBI, in October 2012, filed a charge sheet in the case against Mr. Yeddyurap
pa and 13 others, including his sons B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra, son-i
n-law Sohan Kumar, former Minister Krishanaiah Setty and several of the top lead
ership of JSW Steel, including Sajjan Jindal.
The case and the CBI charge sheet made two allegations. That Mr. Yeddyurappa, as
chief minister, misused his office to denotify a land parcel in Bengaluru for R
s. 40 lakh, which in turn his kin sold to South West Mining Company, a subsidiar
y of JSW for a whopping Rs. 20 crore, while the guidance value of the land was R
s. 1.5 crore, and South West Mining Company had also donated another Rs. 20 cror
e to Shimoga-based Prerna Education Trust run by Mr. Yeddyurappa s sons.
The Lokayukta report and the CBI charge sheet alleged that these two transaction
s that added up to Rs. 40 crore were a quid pro quo for Mr. Yeddyurappa not to p
ush for the recovery of Rs. 890 crore, loss incurred by State-owned company Myso
re Minerals Ltd., from South West Mining Company.
After successive appeals to the Supreme Court to quash the case failed, Mr. Yedd
yurappa changed strategy in 2014 and in fact sought a speedy trial of the case.
Keywords: B.S. Yeddyurappa