The Karnataka Police’s Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday filed a chargesheet against Bharatiya Janata Party leader BS Yediyurappa in connection with a case pertaining to the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl, The Indian Express reported.
The former Karnataka chief minister had allegedly sexually assaulted the minor on February 2 when she, along with her mother, had gone to his house seeking his help in a 2015 rape case investigation.
The 81-year-old has been charged for sexual assault of the minor under Section 8 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, which prescribes a punishment of three to five years in jail. He had been booked under the Act in March.
He also faces charges of sexual harassment under Section 354A of the Indian Penal Code.
Yediyurappa and his three associates, Arun YM, Rudresh M and Y Mariswamy, were also charged under provisions of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to destruction of evidence (Section 204) and offering bribes for concealing the offence (Section 214) for allegedly destroying a video recorded by the girl’s mother during the confrontation with the former chief minister after the alleged incident of sexual assault.
According to the complainant, she was asked to go to another room while her mother was explaining the details of the rape case, which has pending since 2015, to Yediyurappa. It was there that the former chief minister subsequently allegedly molested her, reported The News Minute.
The mother of the girl died of health complications on May 26.
On Thursday, the police filed the chargesheet in the matter in a fast-track court designated for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Yediyurappa has denied the allegations of sexual assault, claiming that he has helped the mother and her daughter in the past.
This came a day ahead of the hearing in Yediyurappa’s anticipatory bail petition filed in the Karnataka High Court.
The family of the minor has also filed a petition in the High Court claiming that the investigation had progressed slowly. Both the cases are being heard on Friday.
On June 14, the Karnataka High Court stayed the BJP leader’s arrest after a lower court issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
A single-judge bench of Justice S Krishna Dixit said that Yediyurappa was unlikely to flee and noted that the politician had replied to the summons.
“He [Yediyurappa] is not some Tom, Dick, or Harry,” the High Court had remarked. “He is a former chief minister of state. Is it your case he will flee the country? What can he do by leaving to Delhi from Bangalore.”
The court then passed an order directing that no coercive action be taken against the BJP leader until further orders.
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