Former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Thursday expressed relief over securing anticipatory bail from the Karnataka High Court in the bribery case the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing on the Supreme Court's directive.

"I am happy for being granted anticipatory bail by the high court. I have got great respect for judiciary and will full cooperate with the CBI in its investigation," a much relieved Yeddyurappa told reporters here soon after Justice Subash B. Adi granted him and his kin anticipatory bail in the bribery mining scam.

Yeddyurappa and his two sons - B.Y. Raghavendra and B.Y. Vijayendra and his son-in-law R. Sohan Kumar challenged the June 13 order of the special CBI court rejecting their application for anticipatory bail in the graft case registered by the CBI May 15 on the apex court's May 11 directions.

The judgegranted anticipatory bail also to Yeddyurappa's kin in the same graft case filed by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Asserting that hedid no wrong and would prove innocence in the case, Yeddyurappa accused then state Lokayukta (ombudsman), Justice (retd.) N. Santosh Hegde of falsely implicating him in the final probe report on the multi-crore mining scam in the state.

"I don't know why Hegde had implicated me in the mining scam probe report when it was me who had ordered the Lokayukta probe into the illegal mining activity that was going on rampantly since 2000 and have banned export of iron ore to protect the state's rich mineral wealth," Yeddyurappa lamented.

In a related development, Yeddyurappa's counsel C.V. Nagesh told reporters later that the anticipatory bail was given on the grounds that the accused were granted bail by the high court in 2011 in a similar case filed by the Lokayukta court in 2011 and which was quashed by the high court.

"Whatever case the CBI has registered is a carbon copy of the private complaint filed earlier by advocate Shrinjan Bhasha in January 2011 against the accused and on the basis of the Lokayukta probe report in the mining scam. But the high court had not only granted anticipatory bail to the accused, but also quashed the chapter 22 of the Lokayukta report, which indicted Yeddyurappa, and the sanction for prosecution given by the state governor (H.R Bhardwaj) early last year," Nagesh said.

Yeddyurappa's kin counsel Ashok Harnahalli also maintained that section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act did not apply to Yeddyurappa as there was no direct link established between the donations made to the trust of his kin and mining leases granted to JSW and South West Mining Ltd by the state government during the former's tenure.