Yeddyurapa declares assets worth several crores

BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, under attack for allegedly amassing wealth, Sunday declared that he had property, cash and jewellery worth crores of rupees, but no accounts in Swiss banks or in any tax haven.

The chief minister said as on Jan 31, he owned 2.5kg gold worth Rs.50 lakh as against 1.6kg he had in April 2008 and 75 kg silver worth nearly Rs.17 lakh (25 kg in 2008) as well as household goods, furniture and electronic items worth Rs.10.45 lakh and a bank balance of over Rs.33 lakh.

Other assets he made public include: Over 18 acres of agricultural land in his assembly constituency Shikaripura; four non-agricultural properties, including a house on a 4,000 sq feet plot in Bangalore’s upscale locality of Raja Mahal Vilas Extension; 9.12 acres of agricultural land converted for industrial purposes in Shikaripura; a residential building in Shikaripura, 70 Khaitan shares and 100 shares each of Zenith Infotech Limited and Urban Bank, Shikaripura.

Shikaripura is in Shimoga district, about 280 km from Bangalore.

The chief minister did not give the value of the land or the residential properties.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s first chief minister in south India made public his assets following persistent opposition allegations that he has amassed billions of rupees after coming to power in May 2008.

The Janata Dal-Secular had Friday claimed that Yeddyurappa’s assets now amounted to Rs.1,000 crores (Rs. 10 billion)

It was also in response to senior BJP leader L.K. Advani’s suggestion that all party chief ministers and others should declare their assets to strengthen party’s campaign against corruption.

Yeddyurappa released to the media details of his assets which he has sent to party president Nitin Gadkari.

The chief minister said that neither he nor his family members had any accounts in Swiss banks or in any other tax havens.

Yeddyurappa and his relatives are facing five complaints in a court over alleged corruption and illegal land deals.

He is accused of favouring his kin with prime land in and around Bangalore and denotifiying large tracts of land to benefit people who invested money in his son’s business ventures.

After the scandal broke in November, Yeddyurappa made his two sons, daughter and her husband, a sister and her daughter and son-in-law surrender the land allotted to them.

One of his sons, B.Y. Raghavendra, is the BJP MP from Shimoga.

He was allotted a 4,000 sq feet residential site in an upscale Bangalore locality under the chief minister’s discretionary quota.

To get the land, Raghavendra had filed a false affidavit saying he did not have any residential property in Bangalore though he owned one.

Yeddyurappa justified the allotment as well as the denotification of land, saying his predecessors had done the same thing.

The five complaints against Yeddyurappa and his kin have been filed by two advocates after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj gave them sanction to prosecute the chief minister and his relatives.