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The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday issued notice to former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, his son and BJP state vice president BY Vijayendra, their family members, former minister ST Somashekar and IAS officer in a case alleging corruption in a housing project. 

The notice was issued by a single bench of Justice S Sunil Dutt Yadav on a petition filed by an activist TJ Abraham who had challenged the order for dismissal of special courts on July 8 this year.

The petitioner had alleged that Yediyurappa and his family members accepted crores of rupees as bribe through “shell companies” from a contractor for getting him bids to construct a multi crore housing project of the BDA.

It was his contention that the former Chief Minister misused his influence and office to get sanction for prosecution denied and got the office of the Governor to make out a letter dated June 24, 2021 addressed to the complainant. 

The special court had dismissed the case for want of sanction   to prosecute Yediyruappa and Somashekhar, who were the Chief Minister and Minister respectively at that time.

The case pertains to allegedly receiving kickbacks from a contractor for a housing project of the Bangalore Development Authority.

It is pertinent to mention that on July 31, 2021 a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka referred to a single judge bench the petition that sought a direction for a probe against former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, some of his family members and others on allegations of receiving bribe from a construction company in relation to a contract for a project of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

The division bench had orally observed that the petition could not be treated as a PIL as Mr 

Mr. Abraham had unsuccessfully filed a complaint before the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the Special Court for dealing with criminal cases against MPs and MLAs.