Bengaluru: The corruption cases are still going to haunt the former Chief Minister and BJP State President B S Yeddyurappa as the Karnataka government has appealed in Supreme Court challenging High Court order to quash as many as 15 first information reports (FIRs).
The state government sought for a immediate stay of the High Court’s January 5 order to quash all the cases.

The government also contended that there would be enormous loss to the state exchequer as the ongoing investigation was on the basis of materials and did not solely rely on the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General report.

The High Court held the CAG report could not be the basis for registration of FIRs relating to denotification of land acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority in Bilekahalli, Halagavaderahalli, JB Kaval and other places in Bengaluru city when Yeddyurappa was the chief minister and hence ordered to quash all the cases.

“The police attached to the Karnataka Lokayukta are authorised to investigate the offences by virtue of a notification issued under Section 17 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. There is no restriction on the source of information disclosing a cognisable offence,” the petition filed by advocate Joseph Aristotle on behalf of the state government stated.

The High Court failed to appreciate that the FIRs were registered after a thorough enquiry conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department.

The FIRs were registered by the Lokayukta police in June 2015 in cases related to alleged denotification of BDA-acquired lands at Bilekahalli, Halagavadera halli, JB Kaval and other places in Bengaluru when Yeddyurappa was the chief minister.

The FIRs were registered based on a complaint lodged by RTI activist Jayakumar Hiremath to the Lokayukta in 2012 based on the CAG report on denotification of land acquired by the government for allotment of sites by BDA.