Software engineer-turned-social activist Ravi Krishna Reddy has accused the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Housing Minister V. Somanna of being complicit in the illegal denotification of a plot of land that had been acquired for the Bangalore Development Authority's Jnana Bharathi Layout near Kengeri.
In a private complaint submitted to the Special Lokayukta Court on Thursday, Mr. Reddy, who made an unsuccessful bid in the 2008 Assembly elections as an Independent candidate, has named Mr. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Somanna's wife, Shylaja, and Mr. Somanna as the accused.
The petition claims that 22 guntas of land belonging to D. Lingaiah (another accused) had been acquired by the BDA after paying him compensation and handed over to the engineering section for development.
On September 4, 2004, Mr. Lingaiah allegedly sold the land to Ms. Shylaja Somanna ignoring the fact that the land no longer belonged to him.
On March 14, 2005, Mr. Lingaiah executed a ‘rectification deed' in favour of Ms. Somanna 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 and, hence, was invalid.
Mr. Lingaiah approached the BDA once more on June 6, 2009 seeking denotification of the same 22 guntas, which he had sold on the basis of a claim that it had been denotified in 2005. At this time Mr. Yeddyurappa was Chief Minister.
The then Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, wrote a detailed note on September 26, 2009 explaining why the land should not be denotified. But Mr. Yeddyurappa ignored his advice and denotified the land.
Special Lokayukta Court judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao admitted the case and posted it for hearing on November 21.
