BANGALORE: In a major embarrassment to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party's first chief minister in south India who had to quit over corruption charges B.S. Yeddyurappa was jailed Saturday after a court rejected his bail plea and ordered his arrest.The 68-year-old Yeddyurappa sported a smile as he came out of the Lokayukta special court after Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao directed that he be sent to judicial custody (jail) till Oct 22.Yeddyurappa, who was largely responsible for bringing the BJP to power in the state, was taken to Bangalore's main jail at Paprappana Agrahara in eastern part of the city late Saturday afternoon.Earlier in the day, Rao rejected Yeddyurappa's bail plea in the two cases of illegal denotification (freeing from government control) of land in and around Bangalore in return for monetary gains.The cases were filed in January this year by two Bangalore advocates Sirajin Bhasha and N.K. Balaraj.The arrest of Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa came after high drama and confusion about his whereabouts as he was not at his official residence on Race Course Road in the city centre when the police came armed with the warrant to arrest him.The police also searched for him in vain at his private residence in south Bangalore, leading to speculation that he might have either got admitted to a hospital or taken shelter in a 'math' (religious complex).Over four hours after the judge ordered his arrest, Yeddyurappa turned up at the court and surrendered.In the jail, Yeddyurappa will have the company of his former ministerial colleagues Katta Subramanaya Naidu and S.N. Krishnaiah Shetty.Shetty was also arrested Saturday as his bail plea in the two cases was rejected.Yeddyuappa was not present in the court whne the special judge took up the hearing on his case. He sent a medical certificate saying he was suffering from back pain.Shetty, who was present, collapsed in the court hall and burst into tears as Rao rejected the bail plea and ordered his arrest.Katta Subramanya Naidu was jailed Aug 8, along with his son Katta Jagadish, a Bangalore corporator, for taking a kickback of Rs.85 crore to allot 385 acres of land on Bangalore outskirts to an software firm.Yeddyurappa's another ministerial colleague, mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy, is also in jail - in Hyderabad - for illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh.However, Yeddyurappa's two sons -- BJP Lok Sabha member B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra -- and son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar were granted conditional bail. The three were also accused in the cases.The two Bangalore advocates have filed five cases against Yeddyurappa, his two sons, son-in-law and others. Hearing in the other three cases is on.Yeddyurappa is the first accused in all the five cases of illegal land denotification for monetary gains.Basha and Balaraj filed the cases after Governor H.R. Bhardwaj gave them sanction to launch criminal proceedings against Yeddyurappa and his kin for conspiring to denotify lands in and around Bangalore for monetary gains.Yeddyurappa quit July 31 after the then Lokayukta (ombudsman) N. Santosh Hegde recommended his trial for graft in illegal land mining scam.
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