Do not own any land, home or stocks in India: Sam Pitroda dismisses allegations

New Delhi: With a BJP leader accusing him of illegally acquiring 12.35 acres of government land in Bengaluru, Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda on Wednesday said he does not own any land, home, or stocks in India.

BJP leader N R Ramesh has alleged that Sam Pitroda, with the help of five senior government officers, including forest department officials, illegally acquired 12.35 acres of government land worth Rs 150 crore at Yelahanka in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Ramesh, a former councillor in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), has lodged a complaint with the Enforcement Directorate and the Karnataka Lokayukta.

In a statement put out on X, Pitroda said, "In light of recent reports in the Indian media, both on television and in print, I wish to categorically state the following: I do not own any land, home, or stocks in India." "Additionally, during my tenure working with the government of India -- whether with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the mid-1980s or with Dr. Manmohan Singh from 2004 to 2014 -- I have never taken/received any salary," the Congress leader, who resides in the US, said.

"Furthermore, I want to put on record, unequivocally, that I have never in my entire life -- spanning 83 years -- paid or accepted any bribe, in India or in any other country. This is the absolute and irrefutable truth," Pitroda said.

In his complaint to the ED, the BJP leader stated that Pitroda registered an organisation named Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) on October 23, 1993, at the office of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

According to Ramesh, Pitroda requested the Karnataka State Forest Department to allot a reserve forest area on lease for the conservation of medicinal herbal plants and research.

On Pitroda's request, the department allotted five hectares (12.35 acres) of reserve forest land on a five-year lease at 'B' Block, Jarakabande Kaval near Yelahanka in Bengaluru in 1996, he claimed.

Since the initial five-year lease granted to FRLHT expired in 2001, the Karnataka forest department extended it for another 10 years, Ramesh has claimed.

The BJP leader added that the lease period granted to Pitroda's FRLHT, Mumbai, expired on December 2, 2011, and was not extended.

After the lease expired, the state forest department was supposed to reclaim the 12.35 acres of valuable government land, which is now worth more than Rs 150 crore, Ramesh said.

He alleged that forest department officials had made no effort to reclaim the land for the past 14 years. Ramesh has urged the ED to file a criminal case against those involved in the alleged land grab, including the officials responsible.