Court summons SP on 'B' report in Somanna case

The Special Lokayukta Court on Wednesday summoned the Superintendent of Police of Bangalore Urban, during the submission of the ‘B’ report after investigations into a private complaint against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and Housing Minister V Somanna, alleging illegal denotification of land.

When DySP Prasanna V Raju submitted the 1,800-page ‘B’ report, stating that the allegations made in the complaint were not proved, Judge N K Sudhindra Rao directed the appearance of SP P K Shivashankar in court to submit the report, as the case had been referred to him for investigation.

The report states that no offence had been made out against any of the four accused – Yeddyurappa, the first accused; Somanna’s wife Shylaja, the second; Somanna, the third and Lingaiah, the land owner, the fourth accused.

Shivashankar submitted a memo stating that the investigation report was authenticated by him and that it was conducted under his supervision and he concurred with the findings.

The counsel for the complainant, Ravi Krishna Reddy, filed a protest memo challenging the ‘B’ report and claiming that the investigation was tainted and incomplete. Further arguments in the case will be heard on March 29.

According to the complaint, three acres of land, registered in the name of Deve Gowda, father of Lingaiah, was acquired by the BDA for the formation of Jnanabharathi Layout, and the final notification was published in January 1994. In 2004, Lingaiah executed a sale deed for his share of property in favour of Shylaja.

Lingaiah also executed a rectification deed in favour of Shylaja, falsely stating that the 22 guntas had been denotified.  In 2009, Lingaiah’s application for denotification was cleared by Yeddyurappa, despite strong reservations expressed by the Principal Secretary to the Urban Development Department, the complaint said.