Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer M. K. Aiyappa, posted as deputy commissioner of Bangalore Rural, was Saturday granted bail by a court here in an alleged illegal land deal case.

Granting bail, Lokayukta (ombudsman) court judge N. K Sudhindra Rao directed Aiyappa, a 2002 batch IAS officer, to give a bond for Rs.500,000, two sureties for the same amount, not to leave the country and not tamper with evidence.

Rao also granted bail on similar conditions to three other government officials allegedly involved in the deal. The four were arrested and lodged in a jail here late Wednesday by Lokayukta police on charges of forging documents to convert government land to private land and selling it to private people for profit.

The charges are that they misused their power and forged documents to transfer 32 acres of government land in north Bangalore to a private individual who, in turn, sold it off to others for over Rs.70 million in 2005.

The present price of this land is estimated at around Rs.600 million as it is close to where the new Bangalore International Airport came up. The Lokayukta police registered the case in November last year on a complaint by a resident of the area.