2 weeks Ago By Express News Service
BENGALURU: With the opposition BJP and JDS demanding Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s resignation in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) case, his cabinet colleagues have turned the tables by raising a decade-old case. They have alleged that Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy and former chief minister BS Yediyurappa are involved in illegal denotification of Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) land. It eventually benefited Kumaraswamy’s family members -- mother-in-law and brother-in-law -- the ministers alleged.
Even as there was no evidence of Siddaramaiah’s involvement in the allotment of 14 sites by MUDA to his wife Parvathi, and everything is being done legally, opposition parties have projected it as a scam. Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy are directly involved in the denotification of prime land, alleged Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and Labour Minister Santhosh Lad. Addressing a joint press conference, they sought an explanation from Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy and urged them to resign from their posts.
They said that since the Karnataka High Court had rejected Yediyurappa’s petition to quash the case in 2021, besides imposing a penalty of Rs 25,000, the Lokayukta should resume investigation. Asked whether the Congress is raising the old case as part of its political vendetta, Byre Gowda shot back saying “shouldn’t the legality of old cases be questioned?” He said the Lokayukta should have called Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy after the Karnataka HC rejected the petition of the former to quash the case in 2021. Byre Gowda said that Urban Development principal secretary Jyothi Ramalingam had categorically rejected the file seeking denotification of 1.
11 acres of land on Survey nos 7/1B, 7/1C and 7/1 D at Gangenahalli (Matadahalli continued extension) in the heart of Bengaluru city. On October 9, 2007, the day Kumaraswamy resigned from the CM’s post, Jyothi had clarified that once the notification of 16/2 was issued, land cannot be denotified, Krishna Byre Gowda pointed out. A ‘benami’ person, Rajashekaraiah, and others had applied for denotification of land on which Kumaraswamy had acted as CM.
His successor Yediyurappa issued an order on June 5, 2010, to denotify the land, flouting officials’ reports, he alleged. Kumaraswamy’s mother-in-law Vimala, mother of Anitha Kumaraswamy, had a GPA with the 21 original owners of the land, and after denotification, she transferred it to her son Channappa through a sale deed, and ensured the owners got Rs 60 lakh, he explained. BDA had issued notification in 1976 and completed the acquisition by 1988, he informed.
“Property worth Rs 100 crore (market value) has been looted. What was the share between Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy,” asked Dinesh Gundu Rao. Lad said that opposition parties were pushing for the CM’s resignation, despite there being no evidence against Siddaramaiah in the MUDA case.
Kumaraswamy should resign if he has moral responsibility for denotification of land that benefited his family members. “This is the first such case we are reopening, and have many more to expose as a leader has got 125 sites registered in his name,” he warned. The President should intervene and write a letter to the Governor, asking him to investigate,” he suggested.
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