JOIN USNow, Ramdas too 'lands' in trouble
Then District Magistrate T M Vijay Bhaskar’s report on land grabbing has indicted Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas along with other political leaders and land developers.
The High Court Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Vikramjith Sen and Justice A S Bopanna hearing a PIL filed by S Lokesh, has directed the investigating agencies to submit all documents pertaining to the irregularities in formation of layout worth crores of rupees.
The Bench, during its hearing last week, had taken the district administration to task for not acting on the complaints on the matter.
Trouble is brewing for Ramdas, who is also the district in-charge minister, in the Lokayukta as well. B Karunakar, a Samajwadi Party leader has approached the Lokayukta, seeking investigation into the land scam based on the Vijay Bhaskar report.
Vijay Bhaskar, who was the deputy commissioner of Mysore in the mid-1990s had submitted a report to the government.
Baladev Krishna, a senior offical in the Revenue department, accepted the report and indicted many higher officials. But, the politicians indicted in the report went scot free. The Vijay Bhaskar report was never made public by the Government thereafter. It remained under wraps for more than one-and-a-half decade, apparently for the fear of exposing leaders of all major political parties.
However, the report obtained by an RTI applicant, revealed that Ramdas and several others were accused of violating the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, Revenue Act. The report mentioned their names with regard to abuse of power in formation of housing layouts without the alienation process in Malalavadi, Kasaba hobli and distribution of sites to the public in the 1990s.
Karunakar, in his petition to Lokayukta, has also questioned Ramdas holding the ministerial position though an FIR is lodged against him in Ashokapuram police station under IPC Sec 420 and IPC Sec 468 for cheating and tampering with records in 2008. Replying to an RTI application, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) has said the investigation against Ramdas is in progress.
Interestingly, the minister had claimed that police filed a ‘B’ report and the case against him was closed.
Lokayukta complaint
Ramdas told mediapersons in Bangalore that the complaint filed before the Lokayukta was a conspiracy. “I will announce my decision if proven guilty,” he added.