BANGALORE/NEW DELHI: A day after registering an FIR, the CBI conducted simultaneous raids on houses and offices of beleaguered former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa in Bangalore and Shimoga besides searching South West Mining Company, a subsidiary of Jindal Steel and its officials in Bellary district on Wednesday.The CBI is investigating any quid pro quo in donations received by NGOs headed by Yeddyurappa’s family and mining clearances granted by the state government when he was chief minister.Officials said that during the raids, incriminating documents were found and investigation would continue.The BJP, however, accused the Congress of using the CBI to fix its rivals.Shocked by the raids and anticipating arrests, Yeddyurappa, his sons BY Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra and son-in-law N R Sohan Kumar moved for an anticipatory bail in the special CBI court.The court directed the CBI to file objections on Thursday.Putting up a brave front, Yeddyurappa later told reporters that he and his family will fully cooperate with the CBI and expressed confidence about coming out clean.The CBI on Tuesday had filed FIRs against Yeddyurappa and others.About 12 teams, comprising more than 100 officials of the CBI from Bangalore and Hyderabad along with Income Tax officials, conducted raids at eight places. The pre-dawn crackdown that began around 5.30 started from Yeddyurappa’s Dollar’s Colony house while other teams simultaneously conducted raids at his Race Course Road residence, the trust, Dhavalagiri Properties (all in Bangalore) owned by his family and their houses and offices in Shimoga.The search operations lasted for over nine hours.A nine-member team headed by Inspector General of CBI Lakshminarayana commenced the raids at Yeddyurappa’s residences in Dollar’s Colony and Race Course Road accompanied by IT officials, while CBI SP Subramanyeshwara Rao led the team that raided Yeddyurappa’s family houses and offices in Shimoga.A team of two CBI inspectors in Bellary cracked down on South West Mining Company and raided its CEO Vinod Navel’s house and seized documents from Torangal in Bellary.The company said “it had not done any illegal activity nor was it connected with any wrongdoing”.Though nobody was taken into custody, in Shimoga, Yeddyurappa’s son-in-law Uday Kumar was taken to the banks to open lockers.Soon after the raids, his supporters, including Ministers Shobha Karandalaje, Murgesh Nirani, Raju Gowda and M P Renukacharya and other legislators, met Yeddyurappa.
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