250 families may lose homes as police sit on harassment plaint

Around 250 families in Begur are in the fear of displacement due to ‘inaction and negligence’ on the part of the Bengaluru Urban district Revenue officials and the City police.

Three acres and 30 guntas of land, which was reportedly granted under ‘Scheduled Caste Grants,’ has been restored twice as per the provisions of the Karnataka Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Transfer of certain Lands) (PTCL) Act, even though the land was sold as sites to over 250 people.

The land - once used for quarrying - was filled up with garbage and later sold as sites of dimensions as small as 15X20 feet.

The Janaadhikara Sangharsha Parishat (JSP), which has collected documents pertaining to the land, said Tare Muniyappa, father of M Muthuraj and M Muniraju, had illegally sold the granted land to a third party for Rs 95 lakh. Despite this, Revenue officials allowed the application for restoration filed by Muthuraj and Muniraju.

In September 1996, Muniyappa obtained khata and an extent of three acres and 30 guntas of land was podified (divided) into survey numbers 397, 398 and 400. Before lands were podified through a government notification in March 2005, Muniyappa assigned a General Power of Attorney in May 2001 to one Shaik Imtiyaz with an express authority to “sell the land.” Later, in March 2006 and March 2007, Muniyappa sold the land in all three survey numbers in three different absolute sale agreements for Rs 95 lakh in favour of Ameer Jaan and Chand Pasha.

These two sold the sites to different persons, including some persons belonging to SC/ST community. Muniyappa passed away in 2009 and his sons filed an application under Section 5(1) (2) of PTCL Act, claiming the restoration of land.

“In 1980, on the report of the tahsildar and other revenue officials, suo motu proceedings were taken up by the then Assistant Commissioner and an order was passed, restoring the land. The land in question is at Begur village in Begur hobli and there was large-scale quarrying in the area. The very grant is suspicious since there is no grant certificate and certificate number,” Adarsh Iyer of JSP said.

Muthuraj and Muniraju, in the second application for restoration filed in June 2010, said that the lands were sold to third parties not once but thrice.

Despite this, an order was passed by the Assistant Commissioner in March 2015, again restoring the land.

“The residents here are from backward classes and are facing threats. Their complaints against Muthuraj and Muniraju of harassment and causing hurt have not been attended to. The inspector of Electronics City police station has not taken any action despite instructions from the Deputy Commissioner (Bengaluru Urban),” Iyer said. The JSP members will file a complaint with the Lokayukta against the inaction by the police and revenue officials.