Plaint to Lokayukta against Bangalore South MLA over 'land-grabbing'

Bangalore South MLA M Krishnappa has been accused of using his authority to get the Uttarahalli lake land illegally denotified. He allegedly gifted the land to his daughter and son-in-law, who built an apartment complex on the land.

Nagalakshmi Bai, an activist, who filed a complaint with the Lokayukta on January 30, has stated that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had decided to acquire parts of the lake land in survey No 103/1 (measuring 36 guntas) and survey No 103/2 (about an acre) to develop a layout. The BDA issued a final notification on September 16, 1997, and took possession of the land on January 31, 2000. However, it is said that in 1994, the land, which was registered in the name of Y G Giridhar and Y G Ramkumar, was illegally sold to Narayanaraju.

When contacted, Y G Subbaiah (of Giridhar and Ramkumar’s family) said the land did belong to his family and was sold to Narayanaraju before the final notification could take place in order to obtain a better compensation than what the BDA had offered. “If the sale of land before the final notification was wrong, then the sub-registrar should have objected to it. But that did not happen,” said Subbaiah.

The land is said to have changed hands between two people between 1994 and 2000.

Bai said that five years after the BDA acquired the land and took possession of it, Krishnappa purchased the land from Narayanaraju and had it registered with the registration number KEN-1-40447/2004-05 on February 5, 2005.  

Two years after Krishnappa bought the land, the Karnataka government reportedly denotified the land on August 14, 2007. The denotification happened after David Simeon, the then deputy chairperson of the Legislative Council, wrote a letter of recommendation to the chief minister on May 18, 2001, added Bai. The reason given by the BDA for the denotification of the land was that it was in a low level of tank bund area and that no building could be constructed on it.

The basis for denotifying the land, however, is said to be ‘false’, as multi-storey apartments have come up on the ‘low-level tank bund area’. The denotification aided the MLA to take possession of the land, which he had bought from Narayanaraju.

Bai further stated in her complaint: “After denotification of the land by the BDA, Krishnappa entered a joint development agreement on October 23, 2009, with Rainbow Properties, represented by its partners Supreeth Ramesh and his wife Reshma Supreeth.” Reshma is Krishnappa’s daughter and Supreeth his son-in-law, claimed Bai.

When contacted, Krishnappa said the allegations were “baseless” and meant to defame him. He said the denotification did not happen in his name and that he had bought it in the name of his daughter and son-in-law. He claimed that he never used his clout as an MLA. “The denotification happened even before I became a legislator. I was in the real estate business before becoming  an MLA, but I never did anything wrong,” Krishnappa said.