3 middlemen held in Karnataka Lokayukta raids on BDA

The Karnataka Lokayukta police on Friday arrested at least three middlemen during simultaneous raids on the Bangalore Development Authority's (BDA) headquarters and other offices elsewhere in the city.

The raids were part of a probe into the illegal allotment of sites, the conversion of CA sites into housing plots, and irregularities in the formation of residential layouts and payment of compensation, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice (retired) B S Patil told DH.

On January 6, DH reported how the BDA had converted at least 12 CA sites and parks in the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Layout into residential plots in violation of its own rules. BDA authorities had ordered an internal probe to assess the extent of the violation.
The DH report, along with other documents and complaints, formed the basis for the raids, a Lokayukta official said.

Armed with arrest and search warrants, 35 officers spread over six teams began the raids at 3.30 pm. The search operations went on till late in the night.

Officials questioned several BDA officials and are in the process of seizing a number of documents, said Ashok K V, Superintendent of Police (Bengaluru City), Lokayukta.

"We have a total of six arrest warrants. Our men are still on the job. Three middlemen have been arrested so far," he added.

The arrested suspects are: Anil Kumar, Adinarayana and Manjappa.

The offices of the BDA secretary, deputy secretaries 1-4, deputy commissioner (land acquisition department), land acquisition officers 1-4 and town planning officer at the agency's head office located in Vyalikaval were searched.

Lokayukta sleuths also searched the offices of the engineering department located outside the BDA headquarters and some BDA middlemen's offices in Sahakaranagar.

Justice Patil said that there were a large number of complaints against the illegal allotment of sites and conversion of CA sites to residential sites.

“There were also observations from various courts pointing to illegalities (in the BDA). We have also received complaints regarding illegalities in the distribution of compensation and the formation of layouts,” he explained.

Lokayukta officials are said to have observed the activities at BDA's head office for some time and obtained a confidential report on the illegalities before planning the raid.