Retaining site tougher than buying one, man learns the hard way

Retaining a vacant plot of land seems to be tougher than buying one in Bengaluru. V Nandakumar had to quit his job with a multinational to attend court hearings to reclaim a 30x40 sq ft site he had bought in 2002. As per the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the site has two khatas, one ‘A’ and another ‘B’, two sale deeds and one plan sanction.

The property in question is plot number 116 (khata number 1631/52/116/9) at 11th Cross, Muneshwara Layout, Attur hobli, Yelahanka New Town. The site, in BBMP ward number-3, was registered in Nandakumar’s name on August 14, 2002. “I had purchased the site through a GPA holder K V Venkatesh, who was developing the layout. All the taxes are paid up to date with a permanent new PID number 003-W0223-10 and also ‘A’ Khata in my name. The original owner of the land, Govindaraju, along with his brothers, represented by GPA holder Venkatesh, had formed the layout with around 32 plots in an acre of land. Plot number 116 was sold to me through a registered sale deed number BNG (U) YLNK/4141/2002-2003,” Nandakumar said.

Everything was fine till 2014 and Nandakumar used to frequently visit his site. “During 2014, I couldn’t visit my site since I was away on Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. When I returned in July 2015, I was shocked to see a residential building being constructed on my property. I found that the original land owner, Govindaraju, had executed a gift deed of my site to his daughter Meenakshi in November 2013 by changing the property number to 9/116. His daughter sold the site to one Dhanalaksmi in April 2014. My complaint with the jurisdictional police went in vain as they asked me to approach the civil court,” he said. After a complaint was filed, the BBMP issued notices to the second buyer of the property and put further construction on hold.

The BBMP cancelled the ‘B’ Khata and issued notice for demolition of the building. “The second buyer had approached the Karnataka Appellate Tribunal (KAT) against the BBMP's action. Almost a year ago, the application was dismissed. However, BBMP has not initiated action to demolish the building,” Nandakumar said.