The Karnataka High Court on February 7 granted partial relief to former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa by allowing his plea for anticipatory bail in a Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act case against him. The court, however, dismissed the plea to quash the FIR against him, and reverted the case back to the trial court to consider the cognisance of the case again.
Justice M Nagaprasanna on February 7 partially allowed the petition filed by Yediyurappa by ordering the trial court to consider the cognisance taken in the case afresh. Yediyurappa had filed a petition in the High Court seeking quashing of the cognisance taken by the trial court and the FIR. The matter has been sent back to the trial court, which can re-examine it with legal arguments from both sides. However, the high court termed the police probe and final report as ‘intact’, indicating that there would be no reinvestigation.
The order read, “Petition is allowed in part. The order of taking cognisance stands obliterated. The crime and investigation and final report remains intact. Matter remitted back to the trial court. All contentions remain open,” Live Law reported.
The court had reserved its order on January 17 after hearing arguments from all concerned parties.
Yediyurappa is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl at ‘Dhavalagiri’, his Sanjaynagar residence, in Bengaluru on February 2, 2024. According to the complaint, the girl and her mother had approached Yediyurappa for help with an older sexual assault case from 2015 involving the minor and her cousin.
TNM went through the 750-page chargesheet, submitted to the court by the SIT on June 27, 2024. The chargesheet states that Yediyurappa took the girl to a separate room under the pretext of questioning her and then sexually assaulted her. After leaving, the girl recounted the incident to her mother at a coffee shop. They later returned to confront Yediyurappa, and the minor, who was aware of the demands for evidence during investigations into her earlier assault, recorded this confrontation on her phone. An FIR was registered on March 16, 2024, in Bengaluru, and the case was transferred to CID on March 17, 2024.
In his statement to the SIT on June 17, 2024, under Section 313 (examination of accused) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Yediyurappa denied allegations of taking the minor into a separate room and sexually assaulting her. Yediyurappa, however, admitted, “ I held her hand and asked about the injustice done to her.”