Ex-CM Yediyurappa booked for 'sexual assault'; denies charge

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Senior BJP leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has been booked under the POCSO Act based on a complaint by the mother of a 17-year-old girl, police said here on Friday.

The girl's mother alleged Yediyurappa 'sexually assaulted' her daughter during a meeting on February 2. Denying the charge, the 81-year-old BJP Parliamentary Board member said he would fight the case.

Home Minister G Parameshwara said: "Some people say the woman is mentally sick."

The complainant alleged that the incident took place on February two when her daughter went with her to meet Yediyurappa at his residence.

Hours after the Sadashivnagar police booked the case under section 8 of the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act and Section 354 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Karnataka Director General of Police Alok Mohan transferred it to the Crime Investigation Department (CID).

Police sources said the girl's mother had in the past lodged over 50 complaints against various people including the then Bengaluru Police Commissioner Alok Kumar, and his staff, for allegedly manhandling her and abusing her.

She lodged a complaint against Kumar twice -- in 2021 and 2022 -- and also against the retired Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao and BJP leader for allegedly "conspiring to ruin her life," in 2022.

Yediyurappa said the woman had been trying to meet him but was never allowed to enter his house.

"Once when she was crying, I called her inside my house and spoke to the Police Commissioner B Dayananda, that some injustice had happened to her. However, when she started speaking something against me in front of me, I concluded that this woman is not proper," he said.