Lokayukta police to probe charges against Urban Deputy Commissioner

The Special Lokayukta Court on Saturday referred a complaint against Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner (DC) M K Aiyappa and others to the Lokayukta police for investigation. The police have been directed to submit a report on November 21.

The complaint filed by P Anil Kumar, Harish and Muniveerappa, all residents ofMadappanahalli village, names BJP legislator S R Vishwanath as one of the accused. The complaint accuses Aiyappa of passing an order granting rights to a 32-acre land to a private person Narasimhaiah, even though the land belonged to the government.

Even before this order was passed, the land was sold to relatives of S R Vishwanath, a MLA .

Counsel for the complainant Nagaraj Damodar on Saturday submitted to the Court that Aiyappa had passed another order three days before the filing of the complaint in the Lokayukta Court, recalling his earlier order granting the land to Narasimhaiah, and declared that the documents pertaining to the land were fabricated and it was an oversight on his part for not scrutinising them thoroughly. He also ordered that the land belonged to the government.

A day after the complaint was filed, Anil Kumar, one of the complainants lodged an FIR with the Rajanakunte police stating that he had been attacked by Vishwanath’s followers for naming him in the complaint.

The case

The complainants have stated that a person named Narasimhaiah filed a revision petition before the Deputy Commissioner M K Aiyappa stating that land has been granted to his father and prayed for the restoration of 32 acres and 4 guntas in survey number 62 of Madappanahalli village in Hesaraghatta hobli of Bangalore North taluk. Narasimhaiah further claimed that the land was his ancestral property and had been classified as ‘phada’ (granted land on which tax has not been paid) land.

In reality, the complainants stated, that this land has been classified as ‘banjar’ land in Revenue records. Aiyappa, after receiving the petition is stated to have sought a report from the special tahsildar, Gopalswamy, who submitted a false report stating that Narasimhaiah was in possession of the land.

Meanwhile four others - Baba Saheb, Habibunissa, Simran and Syed Shafi - filed their objections stating they had been granted three acres each of this very land in 1978 and sought to include their names in the revenue records of the land. None of the five including Narasimhaiah were ever residents of this village, the complainants contended.

Aiyappa passed an order restoring the land to Narasimhaiah, after recording an observation that the claim by the remaining four was bogus. When this was challenged in the High Court, the DC first withdrew his order, then the four withdrew their petition in the High Court and later Aiyappa once again passed an order granting Narasimhaiah the rights to the land on September 22, 2012.

 But Narasimhaiah had by then already sold this land to nine others 11 days before Aiyappa passed the final order. The complainants allege that these buyers were either Yelahanka MLA S R Vishwanath’s relatives or his aides.

“Thus it is clear that the passing of an illegal order by the Aiyappa in favour of Narasimhaiah is nothing but an official favour and whole transaction is nothing but a conspiracy to knock off the land belonging to the government,” the complainants claimed. The value of the land according to the complainants is around Rs 32 crore.

The complaint has been referred to Lokayukta Deputy Superintendent of Police, Palakshaiah for investigation.