Karnataka government forms SIT on land-grabbing charge against H D Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: The state government has constituted a five-member special investigation team (SIT) headed by Bengaluru Regional Commissioner Amlan Aditya Biswas to probe allegations of land encroachment against Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy. 

The case pertains to alleged encroachment of 14.04 acres of government land on survey numbers 8, 9, 10, 16 and 79 at Kethaganahalli village in Bidadi, Ramanagara. 

The SIT has Survey, Settlement & Land Records Joint Director Nisar Ahmed, Additional Bengaluru Regional Commissioner Islauddin Gaddyal, Tahsildar Ganapati Shastri as members with Tahsildar Grade-2 Sheetal as member-secretary.

The SIT formation comes at a time when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) appears to be sharpening its money-laundering investigation against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. 

In November 2024, the government had informed the Karnataka High Court in an affidavit that an SIT would be constituted to probe the alleged encroachment. The order constituting the SIT was issued on January 28. 

"The high court has issued a sharp directive to the government. As per that, we've formed a high-level committee," Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said. 

While the SIT has been given three months to complete its probe, Gowda said the government wants to submit its report to the high court sooner. "We had sought three months' time, which the high court didn't agree to. As much as possible, we want to finish the investigation and submit a report before February 21," Gowda said. 

The government has asked the SIT to verify the genuineness of documents belonging to survey numbers 8, 9, 10, 16 and 79 at Kethaganahalli. If needed, the SIT can send the documents to the forensic lab, the government order states. The SIT has been asked to see if any land-related laws have been violated. If unauthorised occupation of government land is found, the SIT is to take steps to clear the encroachment. 

In August 2014, the Karnataka Lokayukta had ordered the recovery of government land if no records were found to show that it had been granted to private persons. In 2020, the Samaja Parivarthana Samudaya, a nonprofit, filed a contempt of court petition stating that the government had failed to comply with an undertaking given to the high court on recovering the encroached land at Kethaganahalli as directed by the Lokayukta. 

The Lokayukta order was based on a complaint filed by former Mandya MP G Madegowda who accused Kumaraswamy, his relative and former MLA DC Thammanna and others of land-grabbing.