The Karnataka High Court Friday adjourned to Monday the hearing on the bail plea of former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, in a jail here since Wednesday in two corruption cases.
Justice B.V. Pinto will resume hearing the arguments for and against the bail Monday.
Yeddyurappa had petitioned the high court Monday for bail. On Oct 15, the Lokayukta special court judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao declined bail to Yeddyurappa and sent him to judicial custody till Oct 22 in the two cases.
Yeddyurappa was arrested Oct 15 evening and taken to the jail in Parappana Agrahara, a suburb in east Bangalore. However, he stayed there for only a few hours and was shifted to the government-run Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research early Sunday after he complained of chest pain.
From there, Yeddyurappa was moved to Victoria Hospital, also government-run, on the ground that he was suffering from high blood pressure and other ailments. He went back to jail Wednesday morning.
He is seeking bail from the high court in two of five cases of corruption and illegal land deals filed by two Bangalore advocates in January this year. The advocates, Sirajin Bhasha and N.K. Balaraj, have charged Yeddyurappa, his two sons — BJP Lok Sabha member B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra — and son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar of conspiracy to free government land from official control, a process called denotification, in return for monetary gains.
The freed land is usually bought by influential people for a much lower price than market rate. If the owners themselves are people with clout they can sell it at market rate as government pays much less than the market rate when it acquired these lands.
Former state Muzrai (endowments) minister S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty, BJP legislator Hemachanda Sagar and several others are also accused in the cases. Rao has given conditional bail to all the accused, except Yeddyurappa and Shetty who too remains in the jail.
