Bagair Hukum land grant: Special court orders probe against Belur MLA Lingesh

A special court for cases involving MPs/MLAs has ordered registration of FIR against JD (S) MLA from Belur constituency Lingesh K S and 14 others in a case of alleged grant of Bagair Hukum government land to fictitious persons.

The private complaint was filed by one K C Rajanna, a resident of Kolar. Special court judge Preeth J has referred the complaint to the station house officer of Belur police station in Hassan district for investigation under CrPC Section 156(3).

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The complaint stated that being the MLA, Lingesh is also the chairman of the Committee for Regularization of Unauthorized Occupation (Bagair Hukum Saguvali Samithi) in Belur taluk of Hassan district. The other persons named by the complainant include present and former members of the committee and tahsildars between 2018 and 2023.

The complainant claimed that the accused persons granted government lands to the ineligible, fictitious persons by way of suppression of facts, fabrication of documents, creating bogus records by abuse of their power vested under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act. After obtaining certain documents under the Right to Information Act, the complainant had approached the Belur police station. He filed a private complaint when the police did not register an FIR.

According to the complainant, the committee, headed by the MLA, had granted around 2,750 acres of government land, valued at more than Rs 750 crore, to more than 1,430 persons. It was further stated that the modus operandi adopted by the accused persons was first unearthed by the then Assistant Commissioner of Sakleshpur sub-division Prateek Bayal (IAS) and he had submitted the report to the Deputy Commissioner, Hassan. However, no action was taken on this report, the complaint stated.