Cabinet urges governor not to sanction Yeddyurappa’s prosecution

BANGALORE - Karnataka Governor H.R. Bhardwaj had made up his mind to grant sanction to prosecute Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa over land scam charges after Jan 26, a cabinet minister revealed Wednesday.

“The governor had told Yeddyurappa on Dec 31 that he has no option but to grant sanction for prosecution and he would do so after Republic Day (Jan 26),” state Law Minister S. Suresh Kumar told reporters.

In view of this, the state cabinet Wednesday “unanimously” passed a resolution urging the governor to drop his plans, Kumar said.

The governor had reportedly decided to sanction Yeddyurappa’s prosecution based on complaint by two Bangalore advocates.

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

On Tuesday, Bhardwaj had said “it is ticklish issue” and he was going through the documents and would take a decision without delay.

Kumar said the charges against Yeddyurappa and other ministers were being probed by Lok Ayukta (ombudsman) and the state government had also set up a judicial commission to probe all land deals since 1995 to November 2010.

The high court was also hearing a petition on whether both Lok Ayukta and the judicial commission could concurrently investigate the charges, he said.

“In view of this, action of considering the request for sanction of prosecution will not inspire confidence that the decision would be judicious,” Kumar said.

He said the cabinet hoped the governor would “positively respond” to the cabinet appeal to drop his plan to grant sanction.

Later, Yeddyurappa said “no, no” when asked whether the cabinet planned to urge President Pratibha Patil to recall Bhardwaj, who has been frequently criticising the Bharatiya Janata party’s first government in Karnataka and south India.

“We have only urged the governor not to proceed with considering the request for sanction for prosecution,” he said.

Yeddyurappa, however, added that BJP parliamentarians from the state planned to meet Patil and also the party’s central leaders soon. The BJP parliamentarians have decided to meet Patil in New Delhi soon to urge her to remove Bhardwaj as Karnataka governor.