The Lokayukta police conducted simultaneous searches and recovered a large number of documents from the offices of firms jointly owned by former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's sons and son-in-law on Tuesday.
The early morning operation was a result of an order passed by the Lokayukta Court on August 8 directing the Lokayukta police to register a First Information Report against Mr. Yeddyurappa, his kin and associates and investigate the alleged irregularities in the award of a major works contract for the Upper Bhadra lift irrigation project.
Interestingly, Mr. Yeddyurappa told presspersons in Koppal that he had been expecting the searches.
Speaking to reporters on the campaign trail for the Koppal byelection, Mr. Yeddyurappa said he had been informed on Monday evening that such an operation would be carried out.
He also alleged that leaders of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) were behind it.
“They want to take political revenge against me and my family members,” he said.
In a private complaint to the Lokayukta Court filed on July 27, JD(S) leader Y.S.V. Datta alleged that two firms owned by the two sons and son-in-law of the then Chief Minister received a kickback of Rs. 13 crore from a company for the award of a civil contract for the second stage of the Upper Bhadra irrigation project.
He had alleged that the company had been favoured despite quoting higher rates during the tender process.
Speaking to The Hindu, Additional Director-General of the Lokayukta Police Jeevan Kumar Gaonkar said the searches were conducted on the offices of Sahyadri Healthcare and Diagnostics Ltd. and Davalagiri Properties Ltd. owned jointly by Mr. Yeddyurappa's son-in-law R.N. Sohan Kumar and sons B.Y Vijayendra and B.Y. Raghavendra.
Four separate teams searched the offices situated in Vijayanagar, Tilaknagar and Kumara Park.
Mr. Sohan Kumar's house in Vijayanagar was also searched. Sources in the Lokayukta remained tight-lipped about the recovered documents and merely said that the thousands of seized documents contained details of the firms' bank transactions, financial transactions and other correspondence.
