Yeddyurappa visits BJP leaders over family trust

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa was called in at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters here on Wednesday to explain allegations made against a trust owned by his family, media reports said.

Even though he denied it on record but the timing of trip close on the heels of accusations made by Karnataka opposition party Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Wednesday raised many eyebrows and apparently was the real reason for his visit.

JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday had alleged that donations of Rs 27.18 crore were accepted over the last two years in the name of a trust started by Yeddyurappa?s sons through the misuse of the chief minister?s office.

Kumaraswamy also released documents of huge donations taken by trust from a number of people and firms to shed light over the alleged scandal by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.

The donations secured included a Rs 10 crore contribution from a mining company in return of favours, he alleged.

The JD-S leader also claimed that Yeddyurappa?s family had secured Rs 14 crore, out of which Rs 5 crore went in the name of trust, against not pressing charges over encroachment of sewerage canals and tanks.

B S Yeddyurappa however trashed the allegations unflinchingly.

He said that the trust was quite a large one and donations, even of that size, should not be seen as unnatural. The organisation was helping thousands of students get education and the comments were not worrying, he added.

His son B Y Raghavendra also rubbished the allegations calling them baseless, media reports said.

The Karnataka chief minister and his family are already facing accusations in a land scam case which is being heard in a Bangalore court.

The complaints in the case were filed in January after Governor H R Bhardwaj granted permission to prosecute Yeddyurappa after a series of spats between the two.