Congress accuses Ashok of nepotism in land allotment

BJP leader calls it politically motivated

GULBARGA-KARNATAKA; Former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok addressing a press conference in Gulbarga City on Wednesday.

The volley of corruption allegations and counter-allegations between the Congress and the BJP continued with the former on Monday resurrecting an alleged land scam involving former Deputy Chief Minister R. Ashok.

Congress has accused Mr. Ashok of allotting around 2,500 acres of bagair hukum land in 78 villages of Bengaluru South taluk in his capacity as chairman, Bagair Hukum Regularisation Committee, from 1999 to 2009, to “ineligible beneficiaries” comprising former councillors, BJP workers and his relatives and followers.

Releasing documents, V.S. Ugrappa, Mohan Kondajji and P.R. Ramesh, Congress MLCs, have demanded that the ACB register a

suo motu case. Mr. Ugrappa said the current value of the land in question was ₹10,000 crore.

Mr. Ugrappa claimed that Assistant Commissioner of Bengaluru South taluk submitted a report to the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban district, on the alleged irregularities.

‘Case quashed’

However, Mr. Ashok dismissed the allegations as politically motivated. “The particular case was quashed by both the Lokayukta and the High Court two years ago. If they want to pursue the case, they have to appeal against the High Court order before the Supreme Court, and not hold a press conference,” he said. He added that while he chaired the committee as an MLA, the case pertains to the period 2000-2004 when Congress was in power in the State and the committee of five had four Congress nominees. “How can I alone allot the land? Moreover, the applications are made before the State government,” he said.