The Lokayukta police on Monday filed a first information report against BJP legislator S R Vishwanath and Bangalore Urban Deputy Commissioner (DC) M K Aiyappa in a case pertaining to illegal grant of government land to a private person.
The police have been directed to submit a report on November 21.The private complaint filed by P Anil Kumar, Harish and Muniveerappa – all residents of Madappanahalli village, Bangalore North Taluk – states that a person named Narasimhaiah filed a revision petition before M K Aiyappa seeking restoration of 32 acres and four guntas of land in survey number 62 of Madappanahalli in his name.
He had claimed that the land was granted to his father and had been classified as ‘phada’ (granted land for which land revenue has not been paid).
According to the complainants, the land had been classified as ‘banjar’ in revenue records and Aiyappa, after receiving the petition sought a report from Special Tahsildar, Gopalaswamy. It is alleged that the officer filed a false report stating that Narasimhaiah was in possession of the land.
Meanwhile, four persons - Baba Saheb, Habibunnisa, Simran and Syed Shafi - filed objections claiming that they had been granted three acres each out of the same land in 1978, and sought to include their names in the revenue records. The complainants contended that none of the five including Narasimhaiah were ever residents of Madappanahalli.
Aiyappa passed an order restoring the land to Narasimhaiah, after recording an observation that the other four’s claim 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. The value of the land according to the complainants is around Rs 32 crore. The Lokayukta Court on October 21 directed the Lokayukta police to conduct a probe.
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.
