Upa Lokayukta resigns

Gururajan submitted the resignation letter to Governor H R Bhardwaj who is yet to accept it. Gururajan remained incommunicado to the media after putting in his papers.

The State government will now have to search for suitable persons for the post of Lokayukta and Upa Lokayukta. The institution of state ombudsman is now left with one Upa Lokayukta, Justice S B Majage who assumed office in July 2010. A retired high court judge is eligible to become the Upa Lokayukta.

After taking charge as Upa Lokayukta, Justice Gururajan had announced that he would work in accordance with established rules and regulations and try to help the poor and the marginalised sections of the population.

Soon after the exit of Justice (retd) Shivaraj Patil as Lokayukta over a site scam, there was speculation that even Justice Gururajan would relinquish his post. When Deccan Herald contacted him on October 5, he said he had no plans to quit.

However, after Justice Patil’s exit, he had said he had contemplated putting in his papers. “I was hurt by the developments,” Gururajan had said at that time.

He had spiked speculations that he would resign as he too owns a site at the controversial Judicial layout here. According to the information he posted on the Lokayukta website, Justice Gururajan owns a site at Judicial Layout, besides an apartment at the Chitrapura Housing Co-operative Society. He owns another apartment in Bangalore.

Gururajan purchased the Judicial layout plot in 2001 and spent Rs 23 lakh on the land as well as construction of a building. He had said that he did not own the land on which the apartment had been constructed because the society had leased the land for 99 years.
The post of a DIG is also vacant in the Lokayukta police. Last week, Lokayukta registrar Moosa Kunhi Nayar Moole moved to the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal as a member judge. His departure paved the way for B Yoginath to become the Lokayukta registrar.