Fresh plaint filed against B'lore Urban DC, MLA

A fresh complaint has been filed in the Special Lokayukta Court against Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner M K Aiyappa, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Yelahanka legislator S R Vishwanath, and others.

They have been accused of illegally granting government land to a private individual. The complaint was filed by P Anil Kumar, Harish and Muniveerappa, all residents of Madappanahalli village.

The matter has been posted to October 20 for further hearing by Judge N K Sudhindra Rao.

The three complainants said that an individual named Narasimhaiah had filed a revision petition before M K Aiyappa, asking for the return of 32 acres and four guntas of government land in Survey No 62 of Madappanahalli village in Hesaraghatta hobli in Bangalore North taluk.

The complaint states that  revenue records classify it as ‘banjar’ (infertile) land. Narasimhaiah claimed that the land had been originally granted to his father.

After receiving the petition, Aiyappa allegedly sought a report from Special Tahsildar Gopalswamy who submitted a false report that gave  Narasimhaiah the possession of the land.

The report triggered a furore from four other people, Baba Saheb, Habibunissa, Simran and Syed Shafi, who protested and filed objections, claiming that they had been granted three acres each from this parcel of land in 1978.

The complainants, however, said that none of the five, including Narasimhaiah, was ever a resident of the village.

Illegalities

Aiyappa approved an order restoring the land to Narasimhaiah, after negating the claims of the other four as being ‘bogus’.

When this was challenged in the High Court, Aiyappa initially withdrew the order. But when the four  withdrew their petition in the court, Aiyappa once again passed an order granting Narasimhaiah rights to the land on September 22, 2012. By then, Narasimhaiah had already sold the land to nine people — eleven days before Aiyappa passed the final order. The complainants allege that these buyers were either the relatives of MLA Vishwanath, or his aides. “It is clear that the passing of an illegal order by Aiyappa in favour of Narasimhaiah is nothing but an official favour, and whole transaction itself is nothing but a conspiracy to knock off land which belongs to the government,” the complainants said. The value of the land has been put at Rs 32 crore, according to the complainants. The others accused in the complaint are Special Tahsildar Gopalaswamy, Narasimhaiah, Baba Saheb, Habibunissa, Simran, Syed Shafi, M Manjunath, Sricharan, Munireddy, Krishna Reddy, T M Aravind, Somashekar Reddy and Harish.