Land scam probe against Karnataka minister

BANGALORE: Karnataka's Lokayukta (ombudsman) special court Tuesday ordered an

inquiry into the role of Housing Minister V. Somanna, former state chief

minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and two others in freeing state-owned land

from government control by flouting rules.Admitting a private

complaint filed by Ravikrishna Reddy, a techie, which alleged that

Yeddyurappa allotted the state land measuring 23,892 square feet near

Bangalore to an educational trust run by Somanna's wife Shailaja in

2009, judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao directed the ombudsman police to

investigate the alleged irregularities and submit the report Dec 26.The

Lokayukta's Bangalore (Urban) superintendent of police will conduct the

inquiry under the Criminal Procedure Core (CrPC) and the Prevention of

Corruption Act, 1988.According to the complaint, the land under

probe was acquired by the state-run Bangalore Development Authority

(BDA) in 1994 to form a residential layout in the city's southern suburb

near the Bangalore University campus.Though BDA paid Rs.6.83

lakh to its original owner Lingaiah in 1997 as compensation, he executed

a sale deed on the sly in favour of Shailaja in 2004 for the same land

by dividing it in plots totalling 22 guntas (23,892 sq.ft)."The

following year (2005), Lingaiah applied for denotifying (freeing from

BDA control) the same land for reclaiming it on the ground that the

trust had constructed buildings on it without statutory clearances. The

state denotification committee, however, rejected his claim saying the

land belonged to BDA," the complaint alleged.In 2009, when

Lingaiah applied again for freeing the land from BDA control in 2009,

Yeddyurappa, in his capacity as chief minister with discretionary powers

to de-notify government lands, cleared it in favour of the trust

despite strong objections by then principal secretary of the state urban

development department.Shailaja and Lingaiah are the other two accused in the complaint.Somanna

is the third minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government

facing a land scam probe. Courts have already ordered similar enquiries

against Home Minister R. Ashoka and Industries Minister Murgesh Nirani

for illegal land deals under Yeddyurappa's tenure as the Bharatiya

Janata Party's first chief minister in south India.Scam-hit

Yeddyurappa, who resigned July 31 after former ombudsman Justice (retd)

N. Santosh Hegde indicted him in the multi-crore mining scam in the

state, is also facing five other private complaints filed by two city

advocates (Sirajin Basha and K.N. Balaraj) alleging similar

irregularities in denotifying government lands after Governor H.R.

Bhardwaj permitted his trial.