Non-bailable arrest warrant for ex-Karnataka CM Yediyurappa in case of sex assault on minor girl

On Wednesday, the former chief minister filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court for quashing the Pocso case registered in Bengaluru on March 14 following a complaint from the mother of his alleged victim.

Yediyurappa moved the high court close on the heels of the minor girl’s brother approaching the court over the slow progress in the investigation of the case, which was transferred to the CID on March 15.

The high court petitions filed by Yediyurappa and the minor girl’s brother are likely to come up for hearing on Friday.

The girl’s brother approached the high court on June 10 in the wake of the death on May 26 of their mother, the complainant in the Pocso case against Yediyurappa. The former chief minister is accused of sexually harassing the girl when the complainant went to meet him for help in a 2015 case of sexual assault of the minor by a relative.

“Accused was not arrested and not even 41(A) notice was given. Hence this petition as there is no efficacious remedy other than approaching this Hon’ble Court for invoking its extraordinary writ jurisdiction,” says the petition. The plea indicates that the girl’s mother had written to the Chief Justice of Karnataka for a CBI inquiry in the matter.

Yediyurappa has stated in his petition that the case against him is false and should be quashed under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. “There is no prima facie material on record which discloses that the petitioner has committed the alleged offence of sexual assault,” read his petition filed in the high court.

The former chief minister has claimed the case is a politically motivated one and that there was over a month’s delay in its filing.

Yediyurappa’s voice sample collected

The CID has obtained prima facie evidence of the occurrence of the alleged incident in the course of investigations, sources said.

The alleged incident occurred on February 2, 2024, when the girl’s mother took her to meet the former chief minister in an effort to ensure justice for her daughter in the 2015 case, which is in the trial stage.

The 54-year-old woman had her daughter’s statement recorded before a magistrate. Such statements, recorded under CrPC section 164, are considered valid evidence in investigations.

The CID summoned Yediyurappa on April 12 and he appeared for questioning and provided his voice samples for the investigation. The samples were collected for comparison with voices on a video recorded on a mobile phone by the girl’s mother on the day of the alleged incident.

The forensic testing of the voice samples has resulted in a match, the sources said. Several aides of the former chief minister have also been questioned in the case.

On April 25 the CID also obtained a CrPC section 164 statement of a person who witnessed the visit of the girl and her mother to Yediyurappa’s home. This statement was despatched to the Pocso court by a magistrate’s court on the request of the investigating officer.

Mother’s death after long battle for justice

The girl’s mother, who battled lung cancer nearly eight years ago, died on May 26. She had been running around for support in her fight for justice to her daughter after a close relative of her husband allegedly assaulted the minor girl sexually in 2015.

The woman met several police and other officials in an effort to ensure that the perpetrator in the case is brought to justice. She also filed as many as 53 complaints against state officials including police officers over the case from 2015.

Following the death of his mother, the girl’s brother filed a writ petition in the high court through senior criminal and human rights lawyer S Balan seeking a status report on the investigations.

Yediyurappa, who obtained a gag order on March 19 from a local court against defamatory reporting by the media in the case, has rejected the allegations of sexual harassment and said he had helped the woman and her daughter in the past.

“Around one or one and a half months ago they came to my house seeking help. After listening to her, I called city Police Commissioner B Dayananda over the phone seeking to address her problem. Later, they spoke against me and I then suspected there was some health problem with her,” Yediyurappa said after the FIR was registered in March.