Yeddyurappa declares assets worth several crores

BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, under attack for allegedly amassing wealth, Sunday declared that he had cash and jewellery worth crores of rupees besides property in Bangalore.

But the chief minister maintained that the assets were nowhere near the amounts alleged by the opposition.

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first chief minister in south India said he owned cash and household items worth Rs.4.38 crore, 2.5 kg gold worth Rs.50 lakh and 75 kg silver worth nearly Rs.17 lakh.

He said he had 18 acres of land in his assembly constituency Shikaripura in Shimoga district, a house in one of Bangalore’s upscale localities and also some commercial property.

He did not give the value of the land in his constituency, about 280 km from here, or the house in Bangalore’s Raja Mahal Vilas Extension.

The chief minister said he also owned commercial property, bank deposits, life insurance policies and shares in a few companies.

The BJP leader had said Saturday that he would declare his assets Sunday to silence critics and to follow the advice of party leader L.K. Advani that all BJP chief ministers and seniors should make public their assets.

The Janata Dal-Secular had claimed Friday that Yeddyurappa had amassed around Rs.1,000 crore (Rs.10 billion) after coming to power in May 2008.

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.