CBI seizes resignation letters of 40 BSY loyalists!

It was a comedy of errors when a special team of the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the residence of former Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday.

While CBI walked away with a cache of documents, Yeddyruappa realised later that the 40 resignation letters of his loyalist MLAs too were taken away as part of the seized documents.

These resignation letters have been handed over to Yeddyurappa by his loyalists a couple days prior to the CBI raid. His loyalists who were upset with the functioning of Karnataka Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda had authorised the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader to take the final call.

However, with the emissary of party coming down to Bengaluru on Friday to patch things up in the state BJP, Yeddyurappa found himself in an awkward position as the most powerful bargaining tool -- the 40 resignation letters -- were in the custody of the probe agency.

Although these letters are not relevant to the investigation against Yeddyurpappa in the illegal mining case, it is a routine procedure to seize every document in sight while the raid is on, CBI sources say.

It is only later that the irrelevant documents are returned, they add.

CBI sources also say that in case Yeddyurappa needs these documents urgently, he could always make an application and on the merits of which the case would be considered.