Complaint against George's son for trying to 'usurp' church land

A suit has been filed before a city court against the real estate company owned by Rana George, son of Bengaluru Development Minister K J George, for “attempting to usurp” a church property in Richard’s Town, Fraser Town, in the city.

According to the suit, fictitious chairman and secretary of Ceylon and India General Mission (C&IGM) have entered into a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Rana’s company – Kings Way Developers — for constructing commercial and residential buildings on Pottery Road in Richard’s Town, belonging to Mizpah Telugu Church.

D Samson and M Sudhakar, president and secretary respectively of Ceylon and India General Mission (C&IGM) Beneficiary Association, have filed the suit.

The plaintiffs are the subscribing members of the C&IGM Mizpah Telugu Church which is one of the constituent churches functioning under the control of C&IGM. The suit claims that the immovable properties of the Mizpah Telugu Church include a church building and a bungalow (18,400 sq ft) on Pottery Road at Richard’s Town. The bungalow was purchased under a sale deed on March 31, 1931. The property was and continues to be in possession of the Mizpah Telugu Church for church activities.

“With this being the legal position on the bungalow, the chairman and secretary of  C&IGM, S D Bhaskar and N D Solomon Raju respectively, entered into a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Duo Associates (Builders) Pvt Ltd in May 2008 for huge consideration. This JDA was subsequently cancelled by C&IGM’s next Chairman K M Thyagaraju. The rightful owners of the property were not aware of both the developments,” the plaint stated.

On June 27, 2015, Thyagaraju entered into a second JDA with a company by name Kings Way Developers Pvt Ltd, of which Rana is the managing director.

The JDA is for construction of commercial and residential apartment building on basement, ground floor and upper floor. The plaint stated that this was against the byelaws of the mission.

“The mission byelaws are clear that any immovable property like land and building can be utilised only for the purpose of any charitable institutions like schools, orphanage, hospital, old age home. The schedule property number 11 has been given to this builder for constructing commercial building. The builder has already bulldozed the heritage building and further construction will cause unhealthy atmosphere during the worship in the Church,” the plaint says.