Yeddyurappa paid Rs 1,800 crore in bribes to BJP leaders: Report

Former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa made payouts of Rs 1,800 crore to senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, judges and lawyers, reported The Caravan on Friday.

The report said news magazine TheCaravan accessed copies of diary entries in the handwriting of Yeddyurappa that note payoffs amounting to over Rs 1,800 crore to the BJP leaders such Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, the BJP stalwart LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi among others.

"The copies of the diary pages note that Yeddyurappa paid the BJP Central Committee Rs 1,000 crore; that he paid the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari Rs 150 crore each; that he gave the Home Minister Rajnath Singh Rs 100 crore; and that he paid the BJP stalwart LK Advani and the senior party leader Murli Manohar Joshi Rs 50 crore each," reads the report.

"Besides this, the entry notes, Yeddyurappa paid Rs 10 crore for "Gadkari's son's marriage." The diary entries also state that Yeddyurappa paid Rs 250 crore to "judges" and Rs 50 crore to "advocates (fee paid for cases)," but does not mention any names."

The alleged payouts were recorded by Yeddyurappa in a Karnataka state assembly legislator's 2009 diary, in Kannada, in his own hand, the report said.

Copies of these entries have been with the income-tax department since 2017.

The entries regarding payments to the BJP leaders, judges and advocates were written against rows dated January 17, 2009, while the entry regarding the BJP central committee was written against rows dated January 18, 2009, said the report, adding it was unclear whether the entries were made on these dates or written in the diary on a later date.

Yeddyurappa served as the chief minister in Karnataka from May 2008 to July 2011.