While Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda will be presenting the budget on Wednesday, the Lokayukta police will be submitting a B-report before the Lokayukta Court stating that they found no evidence of illegality in one of the cases where the former Chief Minster B.S. Yeddyurappa and V. Somanna have been jointly accused of land grab.
‘No evidence'
The Lokayukta police sent a notice to the complainant, software engineer-turned-politician Ravi Krishna Reddy, on Tuesday informing him that they found no evidence of foul play on the part of Mr. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Somanna and the other accused. The notice informs Mr. Reddy that in the absence of evidence, the Lokayukta police is inclined to submit a B-report when the matter comes up for hearing before the Special Lokayukta Court on Wednesday. Confirming the receipt of the notice, Mr. Reddy, who is yet to receive a copy of the B-report, has seven days to contest it.
The allegations
On November 17, 2011 Mr. Reddy had filed a private complaint before the court alleging that Mr. Yeddyurappa and Mr. Somanna were complicit in the illegal denotification of a plot of land acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority for the formation of the Jnanabharathi Layout.
Mr. Reddy, who had made an unsuccessful bid in the 2008 Assembly elections as an independent candidate, alleged that 22 guntas (each gunta is about 1,080 sq ft) belonging to one D. Lingaiah (Accused Number 4) had been acquired by the BDA which paid him compensation and even handed the land over to its engineering section for development.
Land sold
On September 4, 2004, Mr. Lingaiah allegedly sold the land to Mr. Somanna's wife Shylaja ignoring the fact that the land was now government property.
On March 14, 2005, Mr. Lingaiah executed a “rectification deed” in favour of Ms. Shylaja claiming that the land acquired by the BDA had been returned to him through a denotification order dated March 4, 2005. But the fact, according to the complainant, was that the denotification was never published in the official gazette.