The Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) on Saturday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Minister for Law and Urban Development S. Suresh Kumar on a complaint that he illegally denotified land in favour of the brother of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) functionary.
The complaint was lodged by city-based RTI activist Dinesh Kallahalli.
S.N. Krishnaiah Setty, former Housing Minister, and V.P. Baligar, Principal Secretary to the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, have been named as co-accused in the FIR.
Second allegation
This is the second serious allegation against Mr. Kumar in the last four months. He had quit from the Ministry on June 24 after a section of the media published a report that he had allegedly made false disclosure for obtaining a site under ‘G’ category from the Bangalore Development Authority. However, Mr. Kumar withdrew his resignation within two days after Advocate-General S. Vijay Shankar gave a report clearing Mr. Kumar of the charge and stated that “the allotment of the 50x80 ft site was in accordance with the rules.”
Over 4 acres
In his complaint, Mr. Kallahalli alleged that the government, in 2009, notified 4 acres and 20 guntas of land in survey no. 9/2 of Laggere village, Bangalore north, belonging to Gopinath, brother of RSS functionary K. Narahari. After acquisition, the land was handed over to the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board for construction of houses for slum-dwellers and other backward sections of society.
The complainant alleged that after the BJP government came to power, Mr. Narahari started pressuring Mr. Kumar and others to denotify the land belonging to his brother. And Mr. Kumar, with the help of Mr. Setty and Mr. Baligar, illegally got the land denotified in favour of Mr. Gopinath, the complaint alleged.
The BMTF registered the FIR against the trio under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The complainant claimed that when construction of houses was under way, the government took the decision to denotify the land despite objections by the board.
