Lokayukta police question Yediyurappa for over 2.5 hours in land denotification case, in which Kumaraswamy is also an accused

The case pertains to 1.1 acres of land in Gangenahalli, Bengaluru, denotified by Mr. Yediyurappa when he was the Chief Minister on June 5, 2010. Vimala, mother-in-law of former Chief Minister and JDS leader H.D. Kumaraswamy held the GPA of land and was the eventual beneficiary

Former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa appeared before the Lokayukta police probing a land denotification case against him and was questioned for over two-and-a-half hours on Saturday. 

The case pertains to 1.1 acres of land in Gangenahalli, Bengaluru, denotified by Mr. Yediyurappa when he was the Chief Minister on June 5, 2010. Vimala, mother-in-law of former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, held the General Power of Attorney (GPA) of the land and was the eventual beneficiary of the denotification. Mr. Kumaraswamy and Ms. Vimala are also accused in the case. 

It can be recalled that Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao, and Santosh Lad, all members of a ministerial committee led by Home Minister G. Parameshwara to oversee pending probes into corruption scandals in the State, had on Thursday appealed to the Lokayukta police to speed up the probe.

The High Court of Karnataka had dismissed a petition by Mr. Yediyurappa and refused to quash the FIR in the case in 2021.

‘No pressure’

The said land was acquired by Bangalore Development Authority in the 1970s and was embroiled in a long legal battle that BDA eventually won.

One Rajashekharaiah petitioned the then Chief Minister Mr. Kumaraswamy to denotify the said land in 2007. File notings have revealed that Mr. Kumaraswamy sought details of the land the same day as the application. Days later, Ms. Vimala got the GPA of the land, the Ministers pointed out. Meanwhile, his government was toppled and Mr. Yediyurappa was elected Chief Minister in 2008. Mr. Yediyurappa eventually denotified the land in 2010, allegedly against the advice of the Urban Development Department.

During his questioning by the Lokayukta police on Saturday, Mr. Yediyurappa is said to have stated that he had no pressure from any quarters to denotify the said land and had done so as it was owned by farmers. 

HDK distances himself

Responding to attack from the group of Ministers on Thursday, Mr. Kumaraswamy hit back on Friday asking the Congress to get it facts right and said that he had not denotified the said land and it was Mr. Yediyurappa who had done the same. 

A senior IAS officer, who held a key post in the 2006-08 Mr. Kumaraswamy regime, recorded his witness statement before a magistrate in the case under Section 164 Criminal Procedure Code on Thursday.

On Friday, social activist Ravikumar Kanchanahalli lodged a complaint with the Lokayukta and the Governor alleging the same IAS officer had forged the file notings and signature of Mr. Kumaraswamy in the Sai Venkateshwara Minerals case. Mr. Kumaraswamy is accused of granting mining lease to the firm violating norms and the Special Investigating Team (SIT), Lokayukta police, probing illegal mining cases had submitted a chargesheet to the Governor seeking sanction for prosecution against the former Chief Minister in November 2023. The Governor returned the file seeking an English translation of the entire chargesheet on August 28, 2024.

Published - September 21, 2024 08:01 pm IST