JOIN USLand scam probe: Govt draws boundaries
The State Government on Monday issued a notification stating that all cases being investigated by the Karnataka Lokayukta as on November 18 will be out of the purview Justice B Padmaraj Commission appointed to probe land scams in the State since 1995.
But it is not clear whether the Lokayukta can continue its investigation into the complaints of land scams against Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his Cabinet colleagues.
JD(S) spokesperson Y S V Datta had on November 18 lodged a complaint pertaining to a dozen cases of alleged illegal denotification and allotment of land by the Chief Minister.
The Government and the Lokayukta were at loggerheads over the investigation into the scams. The Lokayukta had taken exception to the Government’s decision to order a judicial probe without its permission.
Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde had said the Government should have consulted the ombudsman on the probe as it was already investigating the case.
The State Cabinet took the decision to order the judicial probe on November 18. “Therefore, it is clarified that all cases where the investigation is already under progress by the institution of the Lokayukta as on the date of the decision of the State Cabinet to appoint Commission of Inquiry, i.e. November 18, 2010, are excluded from the purview of the Justice Padmaraj Commission,” the notification stated.
Justice Hegde refused to comment saying the issue of investigation of the land scam was before the High Court. But the Lokayukta police will continue to probe the KIADB land scam, in which senior BJP leader and former minister Katta Subramanya Naidu is allegedly involved.
The Lokayukta police have been investigating the case for over a year now.