‘I stand vindicated’: Yeddyurappa after acquittal in Rs 40 crore bribery case

Yeddyurappa was accused of alleged abuse of official position and corruption during his tenure as Karnataka CM.

Bengaluru: A special CBI court in Bengaluru on Wednesday acquitted former Karnataka chief minister and BJP state unit President B S Yeddyurappa and others in the Bellary illegal mining case.

“Justice is done. I stand vindicated,” Yeddyurappa said after being acquitted in the case.

The BJP strongman along with his two sons and son-in-law along with some JSW Steel affiliates were accused of accepting bribes to the tune of Rs 40 crore in 2010, during his tenure as the chief minister in Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa, who led the BJP to its first ever government in the south in 2008 elections, had to relinquish the chief minister's post following his indictment by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining submitted on July, 2011 by the then anti-corruption ombudsman Santosh Hegde.

The report had cited receipt of Rs 10 crore donation from South West Mining Company to the Prerana Trust owned and managed by Yeddyurpapa's family and another Rs 20 crore paid for purchase of 1.02 acres in Rachenahalli by the mining firm.

Hegde in his report had observed that these payments were made to Prerana Trust in anticipation of getting some favours by the mining company, a charge Yeddyurappa had rejected.

CBI had registered an FIR against Yeddyurappa and others, and raided their residential and other premises as part of the probe ordered by the Supreme Court on recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee set up by it to look into illegal mining.

Yeddyurappa and his family members also spent some time in jail in connection with the case. CBI had filed a charge sheet in October 2015 against the accused, including senior vice-president of a Bellary- based private steel company and five Bellary based firms, besides a Shimoga based Trust run by the family of Yeddyurappa for alleged abuse of official position and corruption.