Sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa ‘ticklish’ issue: Governor

By IANS
Tuesday, January 18, 2011

BANGALORE - Karnataka Governor H.R.Bhardwaj said Tuesday he will decide without delay on the “ticklish issue” of the plea for sanction to prosecute Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa over land scams.

“It is a ticklish issue,” he told reporters here when asked about the plea of two Bangalore advocates for sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa for favouring his close kin with prime land in and around Bangalore.

Bhardwaj said he has not only to study the documents but also consider various other issues like “whether I am legally competent to deal with it”.

“There are so many documents. All will have to be studied and decision will be taken without delay,” he said.

Advocates Sirajin Bhasha and K.N.Balakrishna submitted documents running into 1,700 pages to Bhardwaj on Dec 28 and claimed the papers establish over 100 cases of nepotism, misconduct and corruption by Yeddyurappa, his two sons and some cabinet colleagues.

Under Indian laws, permission of the governor, who represents the president of India, is necessary to prosecute a chief minister or ministers in a state.

On plans of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to take a delegation to President Pratibha Patil seeking his removal as the governor, Bhardwaj said he had “no problems at this stage to go anywhere but as long as I am here I will do my duty.”

The BJP believes that Bhardwaj is out to destabilise its first government in Karnataka and south India.

“There is freedom of speech. Everybody is entitled to say what they want,” Bhardwaj said referring to BJP leaders often calling him a “Congress agent”. Bhardwaj is a long-time Congress member and was a central law minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government (2004-2009).

Filed under: Politics

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