The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a charge sheet against former chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B. S. Yediyurappa, charging him under Section 8 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and Section 354A (sexual harassment) and 214 (offering gift or restoration of property in consideration of screening offender) of the Indian Penal Code, on Thursday.
The victim in the case is a 17-year-old girl, who had went to meet the former chief minister along with her mother at his residence on February 2, 2024, seeking his help to speed up probe into a past rape case. The victim was raped by one of her relatives when she was 7-years-old. The former chief minister is accused of sexually assaulting the girl in a room at his house. The FIR was registered at Sadashivnagar Police Station on March 14 and the case was handed over to the CID. The High Court of Karnataka had halted the arrest of Mr. Yediyurappa in the case on June 14, following an arrest warrant issued by the trial court.
The CID filed the 750-page charge sheet against four accused - Mr. Yediyurappa and three of his aides for destruction of evidence and trying to cover up the case on his behalf, at the Fast Track Court - 1 for POCSO Act, 2012 cases in the city on Thursday afternoon. The other three accused are Arun Y. M., an advocate, M. Rudresh, a close associate of Mr. Yediyurappa and G. Mariswamy, a close relative of the former chief minister, who allegedly tried to destroy evidence in the case and paid money to the victim and her family, to shield the accused. They have been charged under Sections 204 (destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence), 214 (offering gift or restoration of property in consideration of screening offender) of the IPC.
The charge sheet lists 74 individuals as witnesses, including the minor who has been the victim in the case. She has been listed as witness number 1. Her mother, the complainant in the case, who reportedly died of cancer on May 26, is also listed as a witness. The mother-daughter duo have already recorded their statements before the magistrate under section 164 of CrPC.
