Yediyurappa POCSO Case: CID Questions Ex-Karnataka CM, BJP-Congress Trade Barbs

The survivor's mother had met Yediyurappa to seek help in escalating another case of her daughter being molested.

File image of former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa. 

(Photo: PTI)

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Karnataka, consisting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular), is in more trouble.

After the BJP had to face the embarrassment of the JD(S)'s Prajwal Revanna (now behind bars) being accused of sexually abusing hundreds of women, Karnataka's former chief minister and the party's Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa is now facing charges under POCSO (Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Act) for allegedly sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl.

The state's investigative agency, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) interrogated Yediyurappa on 17 June after Bengaluru's Additional City Civil and Sessions and Fast Track Special Court (FTSC-1) issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him on the evening of 12 June.

However, the court on 14 June restrained the CID from arresting the former CM as the latter had volunteered to appear before the CID sleuths on 17 June. Yediyurappa was in New Delhi with his son, MP-elect BY Raghavendra, but remained incommunicado with the police after the warrant was issued.

According to the police, alongside the POCSO Act, Yediyurappa has been booked under Section 354A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), based on a complaint by the mother of a 17-year-old girl, who alleged that he sexually assaulted her daughter during a meeting on 2 February earlier this year, at his residence in Dollars Colony, Bengaluru.

The mother met Yediyurappa to seek his help in escalating another case of her daughter being molested. In the complaint against the former Karnataka chief minister, the mother alleged that the BJP leader held her daughter's hand throughout the conversation, and later took her to a separate room where he sexually harassed her.

The Sadashivanagar police had booked a case against the 81-year-old under POCSO on 14 March following a complaint by the mother. Yediyurappa denied the allegations but admitted to meeting the mother and daughter at his residence when she approached him seeking help. The mother, who was ailing from cancer, died at a private hospital on 27 May.

Prior to appearing before the CID, Yediyurappa refuted the allegations, stating, "I am not complaining to anyone. Time will decide everything. People know what the truth is. Those who are doing tricks, people will teach them a lesson."

The issue of the non-bailable warrant has led to a slanging match between the ruling party, i.e., the Congress party and the BJP. The BJP has accused the grand old party of indulging in vendetta politics, stating that it is a tit-for-tat for Rahul Gandhi's appearance before a local court in Bengaluru on 7 June in a defamation suit filed by the party.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah dismissed the allegations, saying the Congress party has never indulged in vindictive politics and won't do it in the future either. Home Minister G Parameshwara maintained that the law will take its own course in the case.

On why no action was taken for three months after the case was registered, Parameshwara said the police were waiting for a report from the forensic science laboratory related to the case. "The police have initiated action as per law. What has to be done is being done," he said. BJP MP-elect K Sudhakar described the case as a "political conspiracy hatched by the Congress government in Karnataka to embarrass the BJP."

This is the second time Yediyurappa is going behind bars. He was arrested in October 2011 after the Special Lokayukta court found him guilty of denotifying land in and around Bengaluru for pecuniary benefits to his family. In July, of the same year, Yediyurappa stepped down from the chief minister's post after the Lokayukta report indicted him and his associates in an illegal mining scam. He was in jail for 25 days before being granted bail.

(Naheed Ataulla is a senior political journalist based in Bengaluru. This is an opinion article and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)