Bengaluru: The CID in Karnataka filed a 750-page chargesheet against former chief minister BS Yediyurappa of BJP and three others alleging sexual assault on a 17-year-old girl that contains the statements of 74 witnesses in a Pocso court.
Deputy SP and investigating officer Puneeth Kumar R cited forensic and digital evidence while naming Yediyurappa as the first accused in the chargesheet, filed under sections 8 (sexual assault) of the Pocso Act and 354 A (sexual harassment), 204 (destruction of evidence), and 214 (inducement to shield offender) of the IPC. The other three accused are Arun YM, Rudresh M and G Mariswamy.
Rudresh and Mariswamy stand accused of visiting the survivor's house after the alleged assault and later summoning the teenager and her now-deceased mother to Yediyurappa’s house, where they deleted a purportedly incriminating video stored on a phone and also uploaded to Facebook. The chargesheet mentions that Rudresh gave Rs 200,000 to the girl's mother as hush money, allegedly on Yediyurappa's instructions,
After Karnataka high court passed an order restraining CID from arresting Yediyurappa, investigators interrogated the 81-year-old ex-CM and recorded his statement on June 17. The statements of his co-accused were recorded earlier.
