CM BS Yediyurappa has been charged under Section 8 (punishment for sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 354A (sexual harassment), 204 (destruction of document or electronic record) and 214 (offering gift or restoration of property in consideration of screening offender) of the IPC. In this regard, the Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Thursday filed a 750-page chargesheet against Yediyurappa in the sexual assault case of a 17-year-old minor girl. Arun YM, Rudresh M, and G. Mariswamy were other accused mentioned as two, three, and four and charged under IPC 204 and 214.
It is important to mention that a BJP leader Rudresh from Ramanagara was the chairman of Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (KRIDL). Whereas, Mariswamy another BJP leader, is a former President of Bangalore Urban Zila Panchayat and a relative of Yediyurappa also.Special Public Prosecutor Ashok Nayak informed that the chargesheet was filed at Bengaluru’s fast-track special court (FTSC-1) (Special Court for the trial of cases under the Pocso Act). 74 witnesses including the minor were listed by the investigators.According to the chargesheet and the investigation revealed that on February 2nd, 2024 at around 11:15 am the survivor and her 54-year-old mother, the complainant who died on May 26th visited Yediyurappa, 81, at his residence in Bengaluru seeking help in one of a previous case. Yediyurappa called the minor in the room and locked it. He asked the girl if she remembered the face of the person who had sexually assaulted her earlier. She replied that she did. Yediyurappa asked her age and proceeded to sexually assault her. Yediyurappa gave some cash in the hand of the survivor and the survivor’s mother and sent them away.
On February 20, after the survivor's mother uploaded a video related to the crime on her Facebook account. Arun, accused No.2, at the orders of Yediyurappa, along with Rudresh M and G Mariswamy, along with another person listed as the witness, went to the survivor's house and ferried her and her mother to Yediyurappa's residence in their car. Investigations found that the three accused then coerced the survivor's mother into taking down the video from her Facebook account and deleted the video from her Phone's gallery. At Yediyurappa's directions, Rudresh paid the survivor Rs 2 lakh in cash, the investigations revealed. Another conversation recorded by the survivor on her phone, which was not deleted, and the voice samples of Yediyurappa, formed key pieces of the evidence, well-placed.