Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde spoke to Rajdeep Sardesai and said he has nothing personal against Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yedyurappa. He has also named Jindal Steel as one of the bribe givers. Rajdeep Sardesai: Joining us now is the man of the moment. They are calling him the giant killer of Karnataka - former Supreme Court judge and now Karnataka’s Lokayukta, Justice Santosh Hegde. Appreciate you for joining us. The big question sir, do you feel like a giant killer today? Do you feel you are vindicated now that it appears certain that Mr Yeddyurappa is resigning? Santosh Hegde: No, no. I have no such feeling at all. Whatever is stated in my report is something which is reported by the documents.
I am not bothered about the political consequences of my report. Therefore, I have no feelings about anybody come here, stand here or anybody continuing. Rajdeep Sardesai: Do you feel vindicated sir? Do you feel in a sense vindicated that the BJP has been forced to remove Mr Yeddyurappa. Santosh Hegde: No, no, no. I have no such feeling. I have nothing personally against Mr Yeddyurappa. I have only done my job which was entrusted to me. Rajdeep Sardesai: Though the Chief Minister said that there is nothing new in your report, it is a repeat of old charges that have been made; many of which are being fought in the courts. How do you respond to that when he says the Lokayukta report doesn’t have any new charges against me? Santosh Hegde: We have given evidence to show that huge money has been paid as donation to one trust manager by his family. Though the company did not have any money, they borrowed the money from some other source and donated it.
It is not a natural conduct of a donor. Obviously the donation was for collateral purposes. Similarly, very same company which did not even have the capital to run the company, which has been on an over draft paid Rs 20 crore for a land which according to the guidance value is worth only Rs 1 crore. These were all common sense inferences. Rajdeep Sardesai: You know in one of those cases, for example that you cited, where Yeddyurappa’s son sells a plot of a land to one of these companies for Rs 20 crore, which is way in excess of market price paid by a cheque. Now Yeddyurappa says how does it amount to bribery when the amount was paid by cheque. Your response? Santosh Hegde: I have not come across any decision of the Supreme Court or any law for that matter which says that the bribe can’t be paid by cheque. They are being very clever by paying, giving in cheque for the collateral purpose not directly to the Chief Minister but his family. So one has to draw an inference – was the consideration a genuine consideration or was it consideration for another collateral purpose. More so, in the background of the fact that certain applications or recommendations were to be made to the Central Government by the State Government and these donations were being made.
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