Former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa walked out of jail on Tuesday after being granted bail by Karnataka High Court in a corruption case.
The BJP veteran had been in judicial custody for the past 25 days in connection with two cases of alleged irregularities in land denotification.
Yeddyurappa’s release comes amid a widening rift within Karnataka’s ruling BJP which became evident last week when several ministers loyal to him stayed away from an anti-corruption rally led by senior party leader L K Advani in Bangalore.
Granting him bail on Tuesday, Justice B V Pinto observed that the the sworn statement of the complainant in the corruption case had not mentioned whether the documents produced as evidence were certified as true. The former chief minister had been granted bail by the High Court in a previous case last week. Both the cases are private complaints filed by Sirajin Basha, a Bangalore-based lawyer, and each pertain to separate instances of land denotification from which Yeddyurappa and his family members allegedly benefitted.
Besides these two cases, Yeddyurappa faces three more complaints, also filed by Basha, in which he has sought anticipatory bail.
While top BJP leaders, including Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, expressed their happiness over Yeddyurappa’s release from jail, a show of strength was
also on display as party workers across the state burst crackers even as MLAs and supporters awaited him at the Bangalore Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara.