The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has taken over the probe of POCSO registered against former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in Bengaluru on Friday. The former chief minister said he would face the charges legally.
The Sadashivanagar police booked the former chief minister under Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act and Section 354 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on the victim’s mother complaint ON Friday. The state police chief transferred the case immediately to CID for further probe.
As per the FIR, the complainant alleged that Yediyurappa listened to her problems for “nine minutes” and when she urged him to get the cheating case investigated by a special investigation team (SIT), he said he could not help her in the matter. Further, the woman alleged that all through the conversation Yediyurappa was holding her daughter’s hand and later took the minor girl into a room and sexually harassed her by touching her inappropriately. “I did not have the courage to report the matter earlier. But now, I thought the issue is too serious to be ignored,” stated the complainant in the FIR.
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 and BJP leader Bhaskar Rao for allegedly "conspiring to ruin her life," in 2022.
The former CM on Friday said, “I will deal with it legally. But I am wondering how helping someone can backfire. I had even given them some money as they said they had hardship. Now this is the development. I did not anticipate this. But I will face it.”
-with agency inputs.
