'Gowda family bought land worth Rs 686 crore'

Puttaswamy said here on Saturday the Gowda family had  purchased property worth crores of rupees when H D Kumaraswamy was the chief minister.

“They have bought land adjacent to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises (NICE), the residential sites and commercial complex in various parts of the City and on the outskirts,” he said. He claimed that the family had purchased 231.09 acres of land adjoining the NICE road as per the records he possessed.

“Though the government has fixed a price of Rs 40 lakh for the property here, the commercial value of the land is Rs one crore per acre and the total value of the property is
Rs 231.9 crore,” he said.

He further claimed that 1,03,234 sq ft of residential sites and 6,17,278 sq ft of commercial complex and other properties were in the possession of the Gowda family. He said Balakrishna, Deve Gowda’s son who retired from government service in 2004-05, was able to purchase property worth Rs 27 crore when his brother Kumaraswamy became chief minister.

He said an application seeking the details of his property under the RTI Act has been rejected citing a stay order from the High Court.

Even Gowda’s daughters Anusuya Manjunath and Shaila Chandrashekar have been granted residential sites and commercial sites, Puttaswamy said. Shaila has been allotted a residential site measuring 4,000 sq ft and 78,791 sq ft of commercial land, while Anasuya has acquired 7,891 sq ft of commercial land in 2006.

Though Puttaswamy said he has been able to gather all the required documents, he did not release any documents to support his charges.