HDK chargesheeted for land scam

The Lokayukta police filed a chargesheet in the Special Lokayukta Court on Monday against former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, charging him with illegally denotifying land acquired for forming residential sites in Arkavathy Layout, at the instance of then Forest Minister Chennigappa.

The chargesheet holds Kumaraswamy, Chennigappa and the original landowners and brothers Dr Raviprakash A Vand Sriram A V, an engineer, responsible for flouting rules and commission of offences under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

Sanction will also be sought to proceed with charges against senior IAS officer K Jothiramalingam for his role in the denotification of land. More than 1,600 pages of documents were submitted in support of the charges and the chargesheet itself ran into 48 pages. The court will be passing orders onApril 21.

Kumaraswamy hurriedly filed an anticipatory bail application in the High Court. The matter is expected to be heard on Tuesday.

The complaint in the Lokayukta court had been filed by M S Mahadevaswamy. The matter was referred for investigation on January 2, 2012.

Notification

The state government issued a notification in 2002-03 intending to acquire land in Thanisandra of KRPuram hobli for the formation of Arkavathy Layout. Land was acquired and the preliminary notification issued on February 3, 2003, announced the acquisition of 3,339 acres and 12 guntas, while the final notification stated the acquisition of 2,750 acres.

Land finally notified included 3 acres and 8 guntas in Survey no 87/4B in Thanisandra owned by Dr Raviprakash and Sriram. They sought or denotification stating that they were very poor and had no other source of livelihood. The BDA rejected the plea and issued the final notification and announced a compensation of Rs 42 lakh. The area was divided into 57 sites and 44 of these sites were allotted by the BDA in 2006-07. Residents had also obtained khata for the sites and one of them began constructing a house on the plot.

On April 5, 2007, Raviprakash and Sriram approached Chennigappa, their friend, and gave him a letter requesting the chief minister for denotification of their land.

They stated that they owned no other property except the land, which was a false statement as they owned a farmhouse, commercial complex, residential plots and 10 acres of land in and around Bangalore.

Kumaraswamy denotified the land on October 3, 2007, without ever placing it in front of the denotification committee. The two brothers sold the land to a man named Srinivas Raju for a sum of Rs 2.56 crore. The BDA has also incurred a loss of Rs 5 lakh spent on developing the land.