New Court Ruling A Shot In The Arm For Yeddyurappa; Path Cleared For His Return

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B S Yeddyurappa was on Wednesday acquitted of charges of accepting bribes in the Bellary mining case by a CBI special court. Yeddyurappa was indicted in illegal iron-ore mining case in the mineral-rich district of Bellary in August 2011. Yeddyurappa’s two sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra and his son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar have also been acquitted by the court.

Following the court’s decision, Yeddyurappa tweeted thanking all his well wishers, friends and supporters:

Yeddyurappa was forced to resign in August 2011 after Karnataka's ombudsman or Lokayukta, Santosh Hegde, indicted him for accepting kickbacks worth 40 crore while he was Chief Minister to allow illegal mining in the state. Back then, Hegde had accused politicians, bureaucrats and industrialists running a parallel ‘The Republic of Bellary.’

CBI had registered an FIR against him four years ago after the Supreme Court directed the agency in May 2012 to probe charges against him.

Since then, Yeddyurappa’s political career had been in distress. He broke away from the BJP before the state Assembly elections in 2013 only to return in time for the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. With today’s favourable verdict, Yeddyurappa’s career seems to have received a much needed boost.

With inputs from IANS.