Relief for Yediyurappa in POCSO case; High Court directs police not to arrest ex-CM

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has directed the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Karnataka police not to arrest former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in the case of sexual harassment of a minor girl. The court gave the direction after Yediyurappa expressed his willingness to appear before the investigation team on June 17. The police informed the High Court that they sought approval for the arrest warrant as they had to file a charge sheet before a fast-track court in the POCSO case. However, the court directed that the former Chief Minister should not be arrested till June 17.

Earlier, the CID had issued a notice to Yediyurappa asking him to appear for questioning in the case of sexually harassing the minor girl. Yediyurappa replied to this notice that he would appear on Monday as he was not in Bengaluru. However, the investigation team informed the court that the charge sheet should be submitted before June 15 as it is a POCSO case and Yediyurappa's statement should be recorded. The Bengaluru court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant as Yediyurappa did not respond to the notice issued by the investigation team. Following this, Yeddyurappa approached the Karnataka High Court seeking protection from arrest.

The complaint is that Yediyurappa had sexually harassed a 17-year-old girl, who came to his house with her mother on February 2. It was the girl's mother who filed the complaint against Yediyurappa. The 54-year-old mother died of lung cancer last month. The complainant's lawyer had earlier filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court seeking the arrest of Yediyurappa.