Siddaramaiah case shifted to people’s reps court

The land grabbing case against former chief minister and CLP leader Siddaramaiah and others has been transferred to the Special Court for People’s Representatives, in Bengaluru.

Additional Senior Civil Judge Yeshawanth Kumar transferred the matter to the Bengaluru court on Saturday.

The Lakshmipuram police had registered an FIR against Siddaramaiah and Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) former chiefs C Basavegowda and D Dhruvakumar, and MUDA Commissioner P S Kantaraju, in connection with a land grabbing case. Earlier, the police had submitted a ‘B’ report in the case.

But, later, they registered an FIR under IPC Sections 120B, 197, 166, 167, 169, 200, 417, 409, 420 and 468, following the directions by the Principal Senior Civil Judge.

The court had directed the police to register an FIR, based on a petition filed by advocate N Gangaraju to the Governor in May 2018, seeking sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah. The Governor’s office cleared it, saying that permission was not required for prosecution.

The City Improvement Trust Board (CITB), the predecessor of MUDA, had acquired 535 acres of land under Hinkal Gram Panchayat to develop a layout, Vijayanagar II Stage, in 1981. In 1997, after the completion of the site distribution process, then GP president Papanna, his relatives Sakamma, Annaiah and Sunanda had applied to MUDA to denotify 30 guntas of their land.

Accordingly, MUDA denotified the land. The process was completed within 20 days, when Basavegowda was MUDA chairman.

Later, Siddaramaiah, when he was deputy chief minister in J H Patel government, purchased 10 guntas of the land belonging to Annaiah and constructed a house on a land measuring 120X75 ft in dimension.

The Mysuru Urban Development Authority issued a no objection certificate and also approved the house plan. In 2013, Siddaramaiah sold the house.