Lokayukta court orders probe against H D Kumaraswamy

BANGALORE: In more trouble to Karnataka JDS chief H D Kumaraswamy, the Lokayukta special court today ordered an investigation into a private complaint filed against him alleging illegalities in denotification of government land in 2007 when he was the chief minister.

Passing orders on the complaint, Lokayukta judge N K Sudhindra Rao directed the Lokayukta SP to probe it under Section 156/3 CrPC (investigation of cognizable case) and submit a report by February 6.

Complainant Madhuswamy has alleged that Kumaraswamy denotified 3.8 acres in Thanisandra village, which had been acquired by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) for formation of residential sites in Arkavathy Layout.

Kumaraswamy's action in October 2007 was in violation of rules, the complainant had alleged and named former minister C Chennigappa as one of the co-accused seeking action against them under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Kumaraswamy, son of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, is the second former chief minister in the state after B S Yeddyurappa to face allegations of irregularities in denotifying land acquired by the BDA.

In a similar land denotification case, Yeddyurappa had to spend 24 days in jail before being released on bail by the high court.

Housing Minister V Somanna, Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, ruling BJP MLAs C T Ravi, Nehru Olekar and C Muniraju are also facing charges of land scams.

The high court earlier quashed the Lokayukta proceedings launched against Kumaraswamy for ordering bulk allotment of land to a private housing cooperative society and favouring Jentakal Mining firm by renewing its mining lease allegedly in violation of rules.

The high court last month stayed proceedings before the Lokayukta court in another private complaint filed against Kumaraswamy and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and another former chief minister N Dharam Singh accusing them of facilitating illegal mining.