BY Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
THE POLITICAL ASYLUM
CP YOGESHWAR CONTINUES AS MINISTER DESPITE MULTIPLE CASES AGAINST HIM
The Forest Minister C.P.Yogeshwar still continues to be a Minister despite several cases of cheating and fraud filed against him by different agencies. His Mega City Fraud has become a sort of folklore. The CID has filed cases of cheating. The serious Fraud Investigating agency under Company Affairs has filed several cases. The Income Tax too has filed a case against him. And in spite of these multi dimensional cases, Yogeshwar is allowed to function as a Cabinet Minister.
The BJP government in the state has become a bundle of contradictions. It has allowed a few scam studded Ministers to enjoy power, while it has shown the door for some. The BJP has failed to apply the same yardstick to all and has become a laughing stock for participating double standard.
Krishnaiah Shetty, Sudhakar, Hartal Halappa, Ramchandra Gowda, Laxman Savadi, C.C.Patil, Krishna Palemar are all BJP Ministers, dismissed from the cabinet on one or the other scam. To crown them all, Chief Minister Yedurappa himself was forced to resign from the CM post after the Lokayukta named him in its report on the mining scam.
But, the Forest Minister C.P.Yogeshwar seems to be the luckiest of all. Yogeshwar, who defected to BJP from Congress is synonymous with Mega City fraud. It is to be recalled that Yogeshwar had floated Mega City Housing Project to provide thousands of sites in Bidadi about 15 years back. Thousands of people queued up to pay the sital money. Yogeshwar had proclaimed that he had purchased 500 acres of land to form the Mega city and collected more than 50 crores from the public on the promise of providing sites. It is this project that made him a MLA then and that too, an independent one.
Very soon, people realised that Yogeshwar would not give them the promised sites and they began agitating to get their hard earned money back. Yogeshwar joined Congress and won the elections. When the BJP came to power, he defected to BJP to save his skin. He was made the Chairman of the KSIC after he lost the election. Later, the JD(S) MLA defected to BJP and in the Channapatna by-election, Yogeshwar won the seat and later he was made the Minister for Forests.
While Yogeshwar was defecting from one party to another in pursuit to whitewash his frauds, there were desperate people who were fighting him. Some of the victims have formed an association and started petitioning the authorities against him and his scams. Having failed to get law of the land applicable to Yogeshwar, they then approached the High Court which ordered COD probe. The COD have filed cases against him for cheating, fraud, and forgery et al. The victims have also approached the Serious Fraud Investigating Office under the Company Affairs Ministry. The SFIO too conducted enquiry and detected some more frauds of Yogeshwar. It had directed filing of cases against him under Companies Act. In the meanwhile, the IT department has also filed cases against him.
As such Yogeshwar has created a record for being the politician in power facing almost 50 criminal cases. This is a record perhaps in the entire country. But the BJP is not in a mood to ask him to resign from the cabinet. Apparently, the COD, SFIO, IT etc. have all filed many cases against Yogeshwar and that too in recent days after he became the Minister.
Further, the courts have also issued summons to Yogeshwar and family members to appear before it. Now what if the court refuses bail and packs him to jail? Why go far? Any of the investigating agencies can also easily arrest Yogeshwar in any of the cases. Charge sheets have been filed in some cases and FIRs in some more cases. Interestingly, every case filed against him carries a minimum of six months and maximum of seven years imprisonment. In addition to this, there are private, complaints against him which are in various stages.
Despite all these ‘undesirable’ background, it is simply unimaginable how Yogeshwar is being allowed to continue as a Minister and that too bossing over the heavy, fertile and sensitive Forest Ministry? It is time the BJP removes him from the cabinet before the law takes its course to nab him. Even now, if the BJP removes him, it can still avoid serious embarrassment! But, it seems that the BJP is following different yardsticks to different players and Yogeshwar stands as a shining example for this phenomenon in BJP.
That is all.
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